


Sick

by DragonLover19



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Character Death, Ghosts, Lots of monsters, Magic, Monsters, Sickfic, doctor Wilson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-01-31 15:10:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 39,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonLover19/pseuds/DragonLover19
Summary: It's had to keep alive in the world of the Constant.You have to worry about monsters, your hunger, keeping your insanity from dropping, the constant threat of the Night Monster.But you also had to watch your health there too. Though it could be hard to do sometimes when you're more worried about what's going to try and eat you the next day than keeping yourself healthy.Good thing Wilson knows how to be a good doctor!Victim: ???





	1. Willow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions of blood, gore, and death in chapter

There were mostly five basic things Willow knew about this world.

One, she loved fire. Hard not to when it was so warm and pretty.

Two, she was pretty sure she wasn’t on Earth anymore. Wherever she was now, she knew it wasn’t safe or a moment to relax when everything here was trying to kill you.

Three, she was lucky to still know the basics of all her girl scouts training. It really helped with her survival so far. Today was the… 20, 25ish day she was suck her? Maybe? It was hard to keep track of the days here sometime.

Four, when she finds that tall guy in a suit, he was going to wish he **_never_** met her.

Five, there was a man with a weird hairdo caught in one of her traps.

No, really. When Willow went out to forage for food, she went to check up on one of her newer traps for the stupid Gobblers. It was a simple rope on the ground covered in leaves, the type of trap that caught around animals’ feet and hung them up in the air.

But to her great disappointment (and shock) it wasn’t her intended meal that was caught in the trap. No, it was a man with the craziest hairdo she had ever seen hung upside down by one foot caught in the rope.

He looked to be older than her, but also looked rather scrawny. She could easily take him down with her spear, but the odd look he was giving her made her hesitant to do any sort of harm to him. His eyes were wide, had been when he saw her and hadn’t said a single word when she came close enough that their noses almost touched.

“You’re not food.” Willow grumbled, poking the man with her stick.

He continued to stare at her, mouth open in agape. If she was in a better mood, she would have found his face quite comedic. “Y-You’re a human.” He stammered. His voice sounded scratchy, like he hadn’t used it in a long time.

“Uh, yeah. And you just ruined a perfectly good trap.” Willow flicked his nose. “I spent _hours_ making this thing! Do you have any idea how much work and resources I had to put in it?”

The man rubbed his nose, glaring at her somewhat. “Well forgive me for not foreseeing such trap earlier. I wasn’t really watching where I was going in search for food nor was I aware that someone had set traps down around here.” His glare eased away, looking more in wonder and mixed belief as he continued to stare at her. “… You… are real… right?” He asked, sounded in almost disbelief and hopeful pleading. “You’re not some… cruel joke being played on me… right?

Yikes. This guy sounded desperate. “Yes, I’m real.” She gave his arm a small pinch, just to emphasize her point. (And a little payback for ruining her trap.)

She had never seen such a happy (or dorky) smile before.

)*(

The guy’s name was Wilson Percival Higgsbury. (A fitting odd name for an odd guy.) And he was a scientist.

“You’re not going to use me for any crazy experiments are you?”

“What? No! No most certainly not! I’m not _that_ type of scientist Miss Willow, I can assure you that I never plan to ever put anyone in harm’s way of my work. That would be cruel and very rude.” Wilson reassured her (though she wasn’t really feeling too reassured at the moment) as he took out some meat in what looked to be a small metal box.

“Uh huh. So.” She glanced around. “How… _long_ have you been here exactly?”

Wilson paused in whatever task he was doing, looking at the sky a moment before scratching his beard (Willow really wanted to burn it for some reason) and shrugged. “I honestly don’t remember anymore. I lost count after… 3, no, day number 427.”

Willow’s jaw almost dropped in shock. “F-FOUR HUNDRED DAYS?! No wonder you look like a hobo!”

Wilson gave her perplexed look. He looked down at himself, frowning deeply. “Yes, well… I, do suppose I look a little… vagrant.”

“And filthy.”

“Yes and a little fill—”

“And smelly.”

“Yes you made the po—”

“And a little insa—”

“Would you like something to eat Miss Willow? How about some honey ham? It’s quite delicious!” Wilson cut her off, smiling though Willow could see he was straining to keep it in a smile.

Not wanting to push her luck with her new friend (and a little hungry) Willow agreed.

)*(

Days went by after Willow met Wilson and she had to admit, she liked his company. He was a little strange and weird at times but he was an alright guy. He even didn’t mind that she liked to set things on fire! (Just as long as it wasn’t anywhere near the campsite or any of the supplies.)

There were times when she really questioned her new friend’s stable mentality at times however.

For one, Wilson was a scientist, so _of course_ his curiosity tended to get the better of him at the worst possible times in the worst situations. It was usually ended with Willow dragging him away from said danger by the ear. (Figuratively and literally.)

Another problem Wilson had was his crazy experiments that usually ended being a flop or exploding in his face. (Which made his hair even crazier.) Day in until nightfall, Wilson would tinker away on any new project, spending long hours doing whatever it was he came up with now and lose all focus of the world around him in a small corner away from the camp. (Willow had tested how far she could mess with his hair before he noticed. He never did till it was too late.)

Still, he was a nice guy to hang out with when he wasn’t busy with his new projects. Having more experience in this dangerous place, he taught her the workings and the dangers of this world. She in turn taught him how to cook. (It wasn’t because his cooking was _that_ bad… much.)

Plus the extra hands helped in foraging for food. So at least they didn’t go hungry for a while.

But then came the dreaded **_WINTER_**.

And that’s when things started to go downhill.

Willow **_HATED_** winter. It was always so cold and wet and things didn’t burn as easily as they did in the spring (even if it was just as bad) or summer or fall. It was all wet and cold, and slushy, and cold, and there was this blasted Deerclops (which she still didn’t understand and hated), and it felt like icicles were growing in her hair, and her light could barely provide any warmth and **_IT WAS BLOODY COLD OUT!_**

“Willow! Stop adding the logs to the fire! It’s already high enough as it is right now and you’re wasting fuel!”

“You don’t understand Wilson! It’s bloody cold out and I’m freezing my fingers off over here! Look! They’re already turning blue!” She held out one of her hands out to Wilson, who took it and examined it.

“You’re fine Willow. You’re fingers aren’t turning blue. But be sure to let me know if they are, that could be a bad sign.”

Willow huffed, huddling deeper into the fur vest that was more like a coat. (It was like swimming in warm fur.) It helped against the cold but she still felt the winter biting at her from all around. And she **_HATED IT_**.

“Listen, I’m going to check up on the rabbit traps. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Willow looked up at the sky, frowning. The sky was already starting to get dark. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? It’s starting to get dark out.”

“Better now than tomorrow. Those traps were out of date late I checked, and anything could escape from them if they’re left alone for too long.” Wilson took out a spear from his chest, tapping the stone end. It looked dull and ready to break in Willow’s eyes. She wanted to tell him to use her spear, or wait till the first rays of light so that he wouldn’t worry about the night monster, but Wilson had left with a small smile and a wave of his hand.

That was hours ago. The sun had set. And Wilson still hadn’t returned.

If Willow hadn’t been worried before, she was now. The rabbit holes weren’t that far away. He should have been back by now.

“He’s fine. He’s fine. He lived here far longer than you have. He knows how to take care of himself. He’ll be back soon. I’m sure he’s fine…” For some reason, she took a small glance behind herself, gazing at the wooden doll that stood next to Wilson’s tent.

Grabbing her spear and flicking on her lighter, Willow ran off looking for Wilson. It took far longer for her to find the rabbit holes in the darkness, but she managed to find them. And footprints. Relief flooded inside her once she saw the tracks. Tracks around the rabbit holes meant Wilson made it here. That he was alive around here somewhere.

“Wilson?! Hey! Brainiack! Where are you?!” The area was still. Only the cold winds talked back to her. There was no scientist in sight. Willow’s heart began to pick up. “Wilson! Wilson where are you?!”

Silence only greeted her.

Gulping down her nerves, Willow tried to stay calm and think. Wilson had defiantly been here. He left behind tracks in the snow.

She glanced down again. So, follow the tracks, find the scientist. Should be simple enough.

“It’s a good thing it snowed the other night.” Willow muttered, following the tracks that went to each rabbit hole. She kept noticing the lack of traps with a few of the holes. _At least we’ll have something to eat_. She thought before stopping dead cold in place.

Wilson’s tracks had been closely placed together, one foot out in front of the other in a steady pattern of a slow easy collecting walk. But here. Here it looked like Wilson had stopped, stumbled, and took off in a sprint. But that wasn’t what worried Willow.

It was the many tracks of paw prints that did.

)*(

Wilson was not having a good day. Not a good day at all.

It should have been a simple task. Gather up any rabbits caught in the traps and head back to camp. It should have been that simple. But no. Ooooh no. Maxwell seemed to deem it a too easy of a task for dear old Wilson. Not **suffering** enough in his eyes.

Blue Hounds.

It had to be bloody Blue Hounds.

If he didn’t have to worry so much as to keep his light from going out, he could try to deal with the hounds. He had a Meat Effigy set up back at camp just in case he died. (Though Willow wouldn’t be too pleased to see him using it if he did die. The first scare was enough for her, and she still hadn’t forgiven him for not explaining about his little secret to cheat death earlier.)

But that would be a waste. Effigies were hard to make and required beard hair to make it. He had the beard, but he still needed it to use against the cold. (And beards didn’t grow back once you go through death and revive through the Meat Effigy.)

Wilson slipped, almost landing face first in the snow had he not caught himself and continued running for his life. A small scream jumped out of his mouth as one of the Blue Hounds barely managed to sink their jaws into his foot. It was then that Wilson soon realized that the hounds were gaining on him.

Fast.

Kicking it into high gear, Wilson ran as fast as his legs could carry him as his heart pounded against his chest. If he could just get to a forest and set a tree on fire, he could use the light as an advantage and fight back. The sight of a tree rushing past him gave him some hope.

And then one of the bloody Blue Hound’s lunged and bit deep into his leg.

Pain was nothing new to Wilson at this point. But it still hurt.

A yell tore out from him as he collapsed to the ground, and screamed out again when another hound quickly pounced and bit into his arm. He spotted one of the other hounds making a lunge for his other arm, but managed to hit it away in time with his torch and set it on fire as well. He did not have enough time to watch the beast suffer as another hound bit into his soft torso and started a tug-o-war with the other two that held his trapped limbs.

Copper. He could taste copper in his mouth.

Blood spilled out from his mouth as the damn dogs kept tearing away at him. Try as he might to hit the hounds off him, Wilson could feel his strength leaving him every second. It didn’t help when the other Blue Hound came back and chomped down on his other leg.

The hounds kept tearing into him, blood was dying the white snow crimson.

‘Dying.’

_Heh._

That was exactly what was going to happen to him soon. He could already feel the edges of his vision start to darken and the cold feeling of death coming upon him. It was never fun to die. Never. Death always hurt whether by starvation, freezing to death, being stomped on by giants, or being torn apart by bloody hounds from any season. It was never fun, nor would he ever get used to it.

He knew he would have to apologize to Willow when he woke up in the Effigy. The poor girl never experienced death (and he hoped that she never would) and he wanted to make her understand so that she wouldn’t be too angry with him when he came back and not punch him in the eye or yell at him for hours on end. He could practically hear her screaming right now.

Almost like she was screaming something he couldn’t make out so close to him…

Like she was right there…

Wilson’s body screamed with agony as the hounds dropped him. The blood loss was making it hard for his brain to focus on anything and the ringing in his ears muffled the sound around him.

All he could really feel was the cold seeping into his body, soothing away his pain with a promise of relief if he just closed his eyes.

He wanted to give in, to let it take him, even for a brief moment to escape the pain. But something started to shake his shoulder, pulling him away from the escape. He was rolled over on his back, hissing as the pain came back anew.

Something touched his cheek, prompting the scientist to open his eyes.

His vision was still blurry, but he could make out a familiar silhouette before things went dark.

)*(

_Too slow._

She had been too slow.

She didn’t react fast enough when she realized Wilson was in danger. She just stood there like an idiot till her brain finally got her legs working again and she took off, following the tracks, hoping that she would find Wilson unharmed or at least escaped the hounds.

And then she heard the yell of pain.

_Too slow._

When she finally caught up, she screamed when she saw the hounds holding Wilson in their jaws, tearing away his flesh and exposing bone. She blacked out for a bit, so she didn’t recall what happened next until she was standing over the last hound burning away like the garbage she used to set on fire for warmth on cold nights. All four hounds were dead, burned to a black crisp.

The smell of burnt flesh and hound fur almost made her gag, but she ignored it. Her focus turned to Wilson. Tears were building up in her eyes as she run over to him and kneeled down, shaking his shoulder and trying not to look at the gruesome wounds and the blood covering her hands. He hissed in pain as she turned him over on his back. His face was pale against her hand (ignoring the blood that covered her fingers).

_Too slow._

“Wilson?” Her voice shook, hoping beyond hope that he was still responsive. His eyes fluttered open (unfocused, not really staring right at her like he did when they first met) and closed again all too soon. “Hey. Hey! Don’t you dare close your eyes!” She shook him again, desperate for him to give her any sign of life. “Wilson! Wilson!”

_Too slow._

She kept calling out his name for what felt like forever, but it was only until the last burning corpse of a hound went out and darkness engulfed them both. The loss of sight made her quickly realizes the danger she and Wilson were in now. Taking out her lighter again and flicking it on, she nearly screamed again when she looked down at Wilson.

He was so pale, blood was pouring out his mouth and into his beard. His vest was torn and she could see the large bite mark on his stomach. Bones were poking out of his limbs where they were torn open, bleeding profoundly. If it wasn’t for the shallow puffs of air still coming out of his nose and mouth, Willow would have thought that he was already dead.

“Hang on Wil.” Willow mumbled, moving Wilson on his side, looping his (only) uninjured arm over her shoulder and hefted him up. For looking so skin and weak, Wilson was much heavier then he looked. “Camp shouldn’t be that far away. W-We’ll get you patched up, okay?” She tried to keep the shakiness out of her voice as she leaned Wilson against her, starting their slow trip back to camp.

She kept talking, hoping that Wilson would hear her and wake up, or make some indication that he was responding to her voice.

_But he never did._

“We’re almost there Wil. We’re nearing the campfire and—” There was a sudden burst of smoke and the weight leaning against her was gone.

She didn’t dare look. She didn’t dare to look and see what she dreaded come true.

“OOoooOOoh?”

Willow, braving herself, looked up at the ghost floating beside her.

Had she not seen the familiar hair-like style on top of its ghost head and the dark circles around their eyes, Willow would have probably screamed and tried to burn them (like she tried to when she first saw Wilson’s ghost), but she could only stare at them with a blank look, her lighter’s light paled to the ghostly glow Wilson’s spirit gave off.

“OoooOOooooh…” Wilson was giving her a sad look. The same look he gave her when he understood that he messed up somehow.

“It’s… fine Wilson.” Willow rubbed one of her eyes, sighing while shaking her head. “Just… go ahead and get in the Effigy already. I’ll…” She looked down at the pile of bones next to her surrounded by all the items Wilson had on him. Most being rabbit meat. “I’ll start… picking up some of your stuff.”

The ghost stared at her a moment before shaking its head in a nod and disappeared. Willow stood there staring at the bones before the cracking of wood helped her start picking things up.

_Too late._

)*(

Willow should be mad at him.

That was what Wilson assumed she should feel towards him once he came back to life.

She should be yelling at him for being so stupid for going out there on his own and getting attacked by hounds.

She should be screaming at him for dying on her when they were so close to the camp where all the medical supplies were stored away in his chest.

She should be threatening to pack up and split from here and leave him all by himself as a rightful punishment for his actions that night and for what he put her through.

But she didn’t.

She didn’t yell at him when he came back from the dead. She didn’t scream at him when came to help her gather up the stuff he dropped. She didn’t threaten to leave as they both silently went back to the camp and stored up what little meat Wilson managed to gather from the traps.

She was just… empty.

She couldn’t look Wilson in the eye when he tried to talk to her, nor did she utter a single word to him when he apologized multiple times to her and promising to be more careful next time. She just… didn’t do anything.

All she did was stare into the fire with a blank look.

She had been doing so for over the past couple of days after the hound incident. She just kept sitting on the log staring into the fire, occasionally adding wood when it was getting low, and maybe pop a berry in her mouth.

On and off Wilson tried to get her attention or give her something to eat, but she hadn’t been responsive to him as he hoped. It was honestly scaring the poor scientist more than anything that the bloody place had thrown at him.

He just couldn’t understand it. What had turned such bright person to this in such a way?

He didn’t know. And he hated it when he couldn’t understand things! It drove him insane!

“Willow?” He sat down next to her, trying to find anything that would give him hope that she was listening to him. She didn’t. “Willow, please say something. It’s been nine days since the… ‘incident’, and you’re really worrying me.” He rubbed his hands together, a worrying action he did when he was really nervous. “I’m sorry for what I put you through. It was unexpected and it was wrong of me to go out on my own in such dangerous situation.”

She still didn’t move, or give anything to show that she was listening to him.

Wilson sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair. “Willow… I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I put you through, and what you saw, and for what happened I… I was really being a fool. I was trying to make sure that we both survived through this winter without an incidents of death.” He paused a moment. “But I guess I really failed at that. I… I wasn’t thinking when I went out that night. Thinking of our survival, yes. But in the best way? No. I was rushing head long into a mistake that I should have seen coming. I just didn’t think clearly enough on my actions and what they would cost.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Wilson spied Willow shaking a bit. Out of cold or emotion, he didn’t know, but he smiled inwardly as this was the first sign of movement he’s seen from her.

“You see, it’s been a long while since I’ve been around other people before being stuck here, and even more so since having been stuck here before I met you. I used to only care for my own survival to make it through the night to the next day. Though, there were times when I still didn’t think well enough through with my actions and… they weren’t the best.”

No. No they were not. He could still recall the times of hunger, burning to death, monsters ripping him to shreds, and even forgetting to watch the fuel for his light on his first few days trapped here.

“But I guess I never took in to account of how you would react to this place and its strange properties. Or how death works here. It should have been the first thing I should have explained to you when we first met. But the joy of finding another human being clouded that judgment as well. It still doesn’t excuse me for what I’ve done and… Willow?”

Wilson stopped talking, taking full notice of Willow’s shaking body. Gradually, her shakes worsened as her body shook with no end. Her breathing came out in puffs and small coughs.

Alarms blared in Wilson’s head and he quickly moved in front of her. “Willow?!” He grabbed her shoulders, trying to stop her shakiness. “Willow what’s wrong?!”

Willow stared at him a moment before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and pitched backwards.

“WILLOW!”

)*(

In all his years, Wilson was never so happy to have medical knowledge before.

Having done countless experiments that tended to backfire badly (and incidents as a small child that he would never go into detail about with anyone), Wilson was very capable of treating many wounds and sicknesses over the years on his own. (He really needed to thank his mother once he got back home.)

Though he ridiculed himself for not seeing Willow in such bad state before. Although he could partly blame the vest for hiding the reason for Willow’s current state.

Gash marks. Two of them on her lower back.

Thankfully they weren’t deep enough to require stitching, though Wilson was concerned about the blood loss and puffy red skin around the wound. Cleaning the wound was first priority before he could do anything to help Willow. Thankfully that was still plenty of ice left the ice box. Melting it down and boiling it to rid of any bacteria was simple enough, but he really wished he had some cleaner marital of cloth to use to clean the wound with. One of his sleeves will have to do for now (even if it wasn’t what Wilson would prefer to use).

Once the wounds was clean, he quickly applied some healing salve, making sure it covered the entire wounds before nodding with satisfaction. Now came the hard part.

Waiting.

Wilson hated waiting. There was nothing to do when he waited. Keeping Willow’s temperature down with a wet cloth was easy thing to check up on once in a while, but all Wilson could do was wait outside her tent and hope for the best.

He had never gotten sick before when he came to this place. Not once. He had always been in good health. Not even a little cold. He had wondered if this place had some effects on the human immunogenic system, but now he could clearly see that was not the case. Though he didn’t understand how Willow was the one who was sick and not him. He had many chances to be sick. Open wounds, stuck in the rain, hound bites, mosquito bites, and all other unhygienic things that would surely gotten him sick.

Must be another Maxwell trick then. Making sure he was healthy enough to suffer.

Typical.

)*(

It was around day five that Willow finally woke up.

Groggy and grumpy, but awake.

Wilson was so happy to see her awake that first thing he did when he saw that she was awake was hug her… and then got punched right in the eye.

“Sorry.”

“It’s quite fine Willow. I most likely deserved it.” Wilson waved off her apology with a smile. “I’m just glad to see you’re awake. I was almost worried that you would die on me.”

Willow cringed, turning her gaze away from Wilson (or more accurately the ice he was pressing against his black eye) and looked at the fire. Wilson was worried that she would go back to that blank state when Willow spoke again. “Why?”

“… Why what?”

“Why couldn’t you have hold out a little longer? Why didn’t you… why didn’t you make it to the camp?”

Wilson blinked, lowering the ice to look at Willow questionably. “I’m… sorry. I don’t quite unders—”

“The night of the attack.” Willow turn her eyes back on him, looking at him fiercely. “The night you _stupidly_ went out and got attack! The night that you…” Her ember eyes slowly lost their fire. “… The night you died.”

“Ah. That.” Wilson nodded his head, pressing the ice back on his eye. “I honestly wished that I didn’t die that night Willow. Though with the injuries that I had sustained, I doubt that I would have made it to the camp alive.” He looked to the side, dropping his voice. “And I doubt that I would have even lived long even if you did manage to get me back to the camp.”

“But. But we have healing salve! And other stuff that could’ve—”

“I had internal bleeding, four broken ribs, punctures in the stomach, a clear split in my ulna and radius, and a shattered tibia.” Wilson lower the ice, looking at Willow’s shocked face. “I’m surprised that I even lived to the outskirts of the camp before succumbing to the wounds.”

Willow stared at him for at least a minute, opening and closing her mouth. “… h… How did you…?”

“My skeleton.” Wilson pointed to where the skeleton was. Though Willow couldn’t see it anywhere when she looked. “I did a quick examination of it before disposing of it. I… it was sort of habit for me back then.” He looked sheepishly at the ground, kicking a bit of snow away. “Anyway, even with medical supplies at hand, I wouldn’t have survived the ordeal with the damage my body had to it. It wouldn’t have mattered in the end and it would have wasted resources.”

Willow looked at the ground. “… I still would have tried to save you… I’m still not used to the idea of death being normal here…”

Wilson glanced at her. “… Yes well. Thank you for trying. It was… a nice gesture none the less.”

She looked back up at him, smiling softly.

… And then punched him very hard in the arm.

“OW! What in the name of science was that for?!”

“For being an idiotic genius, you lovable dork!”


	2. Webber

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Some mentions of vomiting in the chapter.

It all started when a spider dropped a skull one morning.

A skull.

Of all things it could have dropped, it dropped a _skull_.

And not a human skull. Oh no! Well, it looked human enough, but it also hairy and had spider legs coming out from beneath it. _Yuck_. Still, for some reason, Willow pocketed the skull along with all the spider glands and made her way back to camp.

Wilson was in his little science section of the camp when Willow returned, tinkering away at the alchemy machine. She could see he was deeply concentrated on the device, and (by whatever force that worked in this strange place and possibly for her own twisted amusement) for some reason she placed the skull on top his strange hair, tying it down with the black wild curls to keep it in place, and walking away with a smirk.

Somewhere close to lunchtime, Wilson let out the girliest scream she had ever heard.

(She almost snorted up the food she was eating from laughing so hard.)

“WILLOW! WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHAT DID YOU PUT IN MY HAIR **THIS** TIME?!” Willow cast a smirk over her shoulder, smiling at the panicking scientist.

“What? You don’t like the effort that I put into making you look better?”

“PUTTING SOMETHING IN SOMEONE’S HAIR WITH WHATEVER GRIZZLY THING YOU PUT IN IT DOES NOT MAKE ANYONE LOOK BETTER! ESPECIALLY MINE!”

“I don’t know. I think it suits you.” Willow (deciding to be merciful to him) walked over and untied the skull from Wilson’s hair and showed it to him.

Wilson, who had be moments away with freaking out, stopped short in whatever he was going to say and stared at the skull Willow held in her hands. “… What… in the name of science… is that?”

“A skull.” Willow plopped it into his hands. “A spider dropped it when I killed it.” And with that she turned on her heel and left poor Wilson with the spider skull.

)*(

Wilson was a curious guy.

That Willow knew all too well.

The guy just tended to study whatever new thing that crossed his path and forget about the world (and chores) around him.

Now, Willow was an understanding person (most of the time) and she was very patient (sometimes) in waiting for Wilson to be done with whatever had caught his attention. After all, she could barely understand what the crazy man was doing half of the time when he was focused on something.

Although, she never knew that the guy could be sentimental over a skull and be so depressed over it.

Until he pointed out that the skull was the size of a kid.

(That was going to give her nightmares. And proved how much of a jerk Maxwell can be.)

Willow really had no words to say once Wilson went over all the aspects and skull development to confirm that it was a kid’s skull. She… well she felt bad, but at the same time she really didn’t know how to feel about this. Sure, it was a skull of a small child but… she didn’t really know the kid. And she saw skeletons nearly every day (thanks a lot Wilson), so she… didn’t really know how to feel.

“Wow. Just… wow.” Willow shook her head, putting away the kabob (suddenly not feeling very hungry anymore) and hugged Bernie close to herself. “Are you uh… are you sure that’s a kid’s skull? It could be a spider skull.”

Wilson shook his head. “No. The structure of the skull is clearly human.”

“Then how do you explain the legs?”

Wilson was silent a moment before sighing and shaking his head and headed towards their supplies.

“Whoa, whoa wait! Where are you going?”

“To bury this skull.” Wilson pulled out a shovel from one of the chests. “I… it’s just… it feels _wrong_ studying it further when I know it’s a…” He exhaled deeply, visibly distraught and shaken. “I’ll… I’ll be back later.”

“You want me to tag along?” Willow stood up, ready to follow Wilson. But he simply shook his head.

“No, no. I think I’ll be fine. It’ll be a quick short trip to the graves and back. Nothing to bother yourself with Willow.” Wilson smiled at her, (a sad, sad smile) and waved goodbye.

Willow gave a little wave, hugging Bernie closer to herself. She knew she could trust Wilson to be alright on his own (even with the Meat Effigy up as a precaution), but she still felt uneasy whenever he went out on his own.

(She still had nightmares about the hound incident playing in her mind at night)

But she had to remind herself that Wilson was a prime expert in surviving on his own. (Sometimes.) She knew she shouldn’t worry over him _all_ the time. She knew he was capable of taking care of himself. He had been more careful since the ‘incident’ and managed to avoid death and close calls. (Not as much as she would like, but at least she knew he was being more careful now.) She could trust him not to get into any trouble without her…

Until lighting flashed across the sky along with a loud thundering **_BOOM_** that made her jump.

Somehow she figured it was Wilson’s fault since there wasn’t even a cloud in the bright afternoon sky.

And was confirmed when he came back later just as she was about to go looking for him… with a _very_ large creature on his back.

)*(

“Willow! Willow put down that spear! Put-Put it down! Th-there’s no need to get so hostile!”

“NO NEED TO GET—?! WILSON PERCIVAL HIGGSBURY DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT’S ON YOUR BACK RIGHT NOW?!” Willow pointed at the said thing with her spear. The same thing that was being shielded by Wilson who refused to let her come near with a weapon pointed at the creature in hand.

Wilson cringed (due to her using his full name or the spear being very close to his face, she didn’t know nor care) and backed away further from her advances. “Look! You don’t understand! I know this looks…” He cast a glance at the thing. “… Questionable. But I assure you that I have very good reasons for this!”

“Oh You **_BETTER_** Have A Good Reason To Bring Back A Large _SPIDER_!” She pointed an accusing finger at the spider.

Said spider was large. _Very_ large. Larger than all the normal spiders she’s seen so far, but it still was a spider. And spiders needed to be **crushed**.

Wilson glanced at the spider, frowning deeply. “Wellll… it… may not _actually_ be a spider.”

“Wilson. It’s hairy, black, eight legs and eyes so I’m _pretty SURE THAT’S A **SPIDER!**_ ”

“NO! No! Listen to me!” Wilson was pressing against a tree now, the spider pinned between him and nature. (Willow wanted so badly to yank Wilson away and set the tree ablaze along with the creature he had brought back.) “Okay, _YES_. They do have some… _‘aspects’_ of a spider.” (She gave him the ‘Really?’ look.) “But I don’t think it’s _just_ a spider!”

“Yeah. _It’s A MONSTER!_ ”

“No! Willow! I think… I think…” He glanced at the spider, pity forming in his eyes. “… I think… I think this may be a child.”

“… _What?_ ”

)*(

Wilson really had no idea what happened.

… Okay, so he may have a _tiny_ bit of an idea of what happened.

The details were a bit vague, but what he did know was that as soon as he found a suitable grave and buried the skull, lightning suddenly struck the grave just as he finished patting down the last bit of dirt, almost giving Wilson a heart attack right there and then.

Instantly his mind concluded that it was Maxwell’s fault (as it always has been for a while now), until the dirt of the grave started moving. Instinctively Wilson jumped back and pulled out his spear, pointing it at the ground and readied himself for an attack.

His grip on the spear tightened when a black hairy limb emerged from the ground, clawing at the dirt flailing about. Wilson almost threw the spear at the limb right then and there.

Until he heard someone whispering for help.

“ _… h… hel… lp… help…_ ”

Now, Wilson knew this place was full of dangerous thing. Plenty of dangers that he had observed (and died from) in the past to know to be cautious of anything new (despite his curiosity getting the better of him many times) could be a possible threat. He knew he wasn’t just going to help something that could possibly kill him in the end. He wouldn’t!

“ _… mo… mommy…_ ”

But this was just a onetime thing.

Tossing the spear aside and getting on his knees, Wilson dug away at the earth with his hands (since he accidentally tossed his shovel away when he was given a fright earlier thanks to the sudden lighting) as fast as he could. He didn’t have to dig very far in before the rest of the limb’s owner emerged from the loosen soil gasping for air and hacking up dirt from their mouth.

When Wilson saw what he had dug up, his first thought was **_SPIDER!_** and jumped back in alarm before he noticed more of the spider’s body.

Mostly how humanoid it looked.

Wilson stared in shock as the spider pulled themselves out of the ground more once they could breathe, pulling themselves weakly out of the grave. Of all the spiders Wilson had seen, this one was certainly by far the strangest. It looked like a spider, but its body was also that of a human, albeit still hairy and black like a spider.

“Fascinating.” Wilson whispered, getting closer to the spider and looking it over. “Aren’t you just an interesting specimen?” He poked it gently, still uneasy and wary in case it jumped and attacked him. “Are you some sort of evolved species of spider or—”

The spider shivered, letting out a rough dry cough.

And then it _spoke_.

“… w… wh-where am i…?”

Wilson stared in shock. A humanoid spider. That had the capability to speak?! This was by far the most interesting thing he had encountered so far!

“Y-Y-YOU CAN TALK?! Y-You can! That’s bloody BRILLIANT! That’s! This is incredible! A different species that can speak human langue! Aside for the pigmen, but still incredible! Wait, are you friendly? Hostile? Neutral? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you see all the colors or just a set amount? _Can_ you see? How old are you? When did you learn the capability to speak? Are there more of you? What does your species call themselves? How did you get in that grave? Why where in that grave? Are you related to the ground spiders by chance? My name is Wilson P. Higgsbury by the way what’s yours? Do you have a name? How—”

The spider let out a round of dry coughs, cutting off Wilson’s spiel. It rose shakily on two arms (or at least what Wilson could assume were arms) and groaned, holding their midsection as their face twisted in pain.

Before Wilson could say anything, the spider made an odd noise. A noise Wilson recognized immediately and backed away as the spider convulsed and retched whatever was in their stomach onto the ground. He winced, disgusted at the sight as the spider dry-heaved and vomited again.

When the spider was done, it went still for a moment. Then its shoulders started shaking and Wilson heard the sound of… crying?

Yes. The spider was defiantly crying. Which was… surprising.

Wilson wasn’t sure if spider’s had the capacity to cry, but here was one right before him crying like a small… child…

He looked at the grave, then back at the spider. It was slowly starting to click in his head.

“H-Hey.” He scooted closer to the spider, reaching out a shaky hand, touching the spider’s arm. The spider jumped from the contact, suddenly realizing that Wilson was there and backed away with clear fear on its face.

“S-Stay away!” It croaked. The voice sounded rough and scratchy, but undeniably young.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” Wilson held up his hands, staying right where he was so not to spook the spider child (good science this was a _spider child_ ) and kept himself calm. There was no reason to scare the kid as he (was the child a he? They’re voice sounded like a male but it was kind of hard to tell…) was now. “I just want some answers. Do you think you can do that for me?”

The spider child rubbed the pair of bigger eyes, looking around with confusion. “W-Where am I?”

“Currently, we’re in a forest.” Wilson answered, keeping his voice steady. “I don’t know where _exactly_ we are. I’ve been trying to figure that out myself.”

The spider looked at him, sniffing. “… Do… do you… know where my mommy is?”

Wilson cringed. “… No. No I do not. I’m not sure where your mother is.”

“Wh-what about my daddy?” The spider child looked at him pleadingly. “Do you know wh—” A round of harsh coughs cut off his sentence, and his arms gave out.

Wilson, with quick reflexes, shot forward and caught the child before he hit the ground (and the vomit) and felt his forehead (minding the small eyes that blinked weakly at him). A hum of concern emanated in Wilson’s throat, not liking the warmth the spider child was giving off. “You’re sick.”

“M not.” The spider child weakly replied. But Wilson wasn’t convinced in the slightest when they coughed again.

“No, you’re clearly sick.” Wilson helped the spider child to his feet, keeping him steady. He frowned deeply. The spider child was breathing rather heavily, barely able to stand up on his shaking legs, and his body was giving off quite a lot of heat. “You can’t even walk let alone barely stand on your own.”

He glanced at the ground, cringing at the sight of bail. (Though now that he got a good look at it, it seems his new friend was on an empty stomach.)

“Right. I think its best you come with me for now.”

“no.” Wilson blinked in surprise, looking at the spider child questionably. “m-mommy… mo-mommy says i’m… n… not to… follow st-st… strangers…”

Wilson couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Well, in other situations, your mother would be right. However, this is not the case. You’re sick and I want to help you get better.”

“w-why?”

Wilson paused. That… was a good question. Why _did_ he want to help this child spider he just met? It was odd, if not very questionable behavior on his part. They had just met after all, and he still wasn’t sure if this spider child was hostile or not.

Looking at the spider child, he could see that they were fighting to stay awake. Six of their eight eyes were already almost shut.

“… Because you need help. And it wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of me to leave someone in need. Especially if they are a young child.” Wilson answered honestly. (Plus, he was still rather curious about this spider being and wanted some answers. But he could get that _after_ the poor boy was feeling better.) “My base shouldn’t be too far away from here. Do you think you can manage walking there?”

The spider child blinked sluggishly at him, looking down at his feet and tried lifting one leg up… and collapse against Wilson.

“… I’ll take that as a no then. I guess I can carry you back. The base isn’t too far away, and you don’t look that heavy to carry… Oh!” Wilson slapped his head. “I haven’t introduced myself properly yet! My name is Wil…” Looking down at the spider child, Wilson’s words died in his mouth. The spider kid had fallen asleep against him.

“… Well, resting is recommended to get better.” Wilson sighed, maneuvering the spider to his back and lifting them up carefully. The child mumbled something, pressing their face against the back of Wilson’s neck before going still again. He smiled, making sure he had a good hold on the child and made his way back to camp.

… Though for some reason, he felt like he was forgetting about something.

)*(

“ _Yeah._ **Me.** ”

Wilson cringed. “R-Right. Again, I apologize for coming back without thinking about how you would feel towards this… situation, Willow.”

“Situation? Wilson, you just told me that that… _thing_ used to be the skull I found earlier today?!” Willow pointed at the spider, which was now off of Wilson’s back (thank goodness) and laid out on a straw roll.

Wilson shot a glare at her, looking very offended. “They’re not a _thing_ Willow! They’re a living being! A sick one at that I might add.”

“Wilson, it’s a _spider_. It’s a hairy, black, eight legged spider. And you just brought it back to our base because you felt bad for it despite the fact that once you get it to full health, it’ll just kill you like all the other spiders in this horrible place!” Willow ranted, throwing her hands up in the air.

“He won’t do that Willow.”

“And what makes you so sure?! It could be another trick by Maxwell! Did you even stop to think about that?!”

Wilson opened his mouth to retort, but closed it with a look of realization. He looked at the spider, frowning a bit before sighing. “Hadn’t thought of that.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Willow sighed, rubbing her face. Silence hung around them for a while, the air feeling heavy with doubt, worry, and uncertainty. Finally, Willow stood up, picking up the spear (noting how Wilson flinched a little and moved closer to the spider) and pocketed Bernie. “Look. I’m just going to go check on the rabbit traps. Just… _think_ about what you’re doing, okay? It’s good that you want to help… them. But you really have to think it about the consequences before you do something.”

Wilson stared at her a moment before giving her a small playful smile and tilting his head a little. “And where would the fun be if I didn’t take the risk?”

Willow gave him a flat look, pointing to the Meat Effigy set next to his tent (and not the one next to hers). “Gee, I don’t know Higgsbury. You must really think death is _fun_ in risk taking.” Taking a small pleasure in seeing the scientist cringe, she turned on her heel and went off.

(While slightly hoping that Wilson would listen to her.)

)*(

The spider was still there when she came back.

( _Of course it was_.)

And Wilson was still sitting next to it keeping an eye on it. And not. He had a sheet of papyrus in his hands, writing something down on it with feather pencil, looking up once in a while to look at the spider before writing down something else. He gave her a little wave as she approached.

“Are you _studying_ the spider?” Willow asked in disbelief, hands on her hips and tapping her foot in disprovable.

Wilson stopped jotting down whatever he was writing, looking rather sheepish. “Yes well. I don’t really know how well I can treat a sick spider. Never had to before now. Thought it might be best to keep some notes just in case.”

Willow sighed and rolled her eyes, but let Wilson be with his new friend.

She had more important things to worry about anyway.

)*(

Willow had to admit, she never thought that Wilson would devote so much time on something else other than science. Yet day in and out, Wilson kept an eye on the spider, mentoring their health and studying them.

He was devoted to the spider so much that he skipped out on eating (as he normally did) quite a lot. If Willow hadn’t felt nice (and worried about him) she would have left him to starve. But, she didn’t. She wasn’t like that. So she made sure to cook enough for both of them and shove his share in his hands so he would at least remember to eat. (And to shave often so he wouldn’t get heat stroke in the summer heat.)

It wasn’t till she came back from Gobbler hunting that the spider woke up.

Well, not exactly awake. They were still quite out of it and could barely make any legible sentences (but at least now she believed Wilson when he told her it could talk). It fell back into unconsciousness soon after.

Still, it made Wilson happy to know that there was some progress with the spider.

“Stop calling him the spider Willow.”

“Well what do you want me to call him then? It’s not like they have a name.”

“I’m sure they do. Just, calling them the spider doesn’t seem very fitting.”

Willow paused in hanging up a slab of meat, giving Wilson a small glare. “And what would you call them then?”

“Nothing.” Wilson huffed, studying the weird web the spider started growing around its face at day three. “Not till I know their name so I can properly address them.”

Willow rolled her eyes, getting back to her task. “Whatever you say ya dork.” (She hadn’t smiled in a while, but the glare she could feel him giving her made it worth it.)

)*(

The spider finally woke up one morning.

The same morning that Wilson (after countless sleepless nights of watching over the spider until she had enough and shoved him in his tent) was fast asleep in his tent, leaving her to be there when the spider opened its eyes and sat up.

Willow instantly tensed, sitting up straight as the spider got up and looked around. Eight eyes landed on her, and she really regretted letting Wilson take her spear away. She still had her lighter. She could still set the spider on fire if it did anything.

It blinked at her a bit. Then it yawned and rubbed its face. “Morning…” It (he, as Wilson kept reminding her) said groggily.

“… Uh… hi.” Willow waved awkwardly, not entirely sure what to do. She still wasn’t sure what to make of the spider. Wilson had assured her that he was (60%) certain that the spider was harmless, though she still had her doubts.

The spider blinked open their eyes again, looking around the camp. He took in his surroundings, looking at every item that they (mostly Wilson) had built here. They looked back at her, tilting their head curiously. “… Where… am I?”

Willow felt even more awkward. “W-Well, this is a base. A summer base. It’s a temporary place me and Wilson stay during the summer when it gets hot out an—” Willow stopped short, suddenly realizing that she was giving away too much information.

The spider didn’t seem to notice her cutting her sentence off. Instead it ( _he_ ) focused more on its ( _his_ ) white beard that grew on its ( ** _his_** ) chin. “What’s this white stuff on my face?” He fiddled with the ends.

“I… don’t really know. Wilson thinks it might be a beard. Made out of webs? I don’t know. Wilson would probably know more than me.”

“More than what?” As if on cue, Wilson popped his head out from his tent, yawning while rubbing the sleep out from his eyes (his hair even more ridiculous than before).

“Oh good you’re awake! Guess who else is up!” Willow, glad for the distraction, pointed to the spider.

When Wilson turned his tired eyes on the spider, he smiled and waved. “Oh, good morning. Finally awake I see.”

The spider waved back a little. “Hi…”

“Well that’s some good news.” Wilson stepped out of his tent, stretching out his back. “I was worried that you might never wake up.” He went over to the spider, sitting down next to them. “Now then, how do you feel? Any pain? Nausea? Headaches? How’s your temperature doing? Do you feel hot or cold? Do you see any blurriness in your e—”

“Hey genius, I think you should slow down with the questions and let the kid answer!” Willow cut off Wilson’s brigade of questions, saving the poor spider from assault of a thousand questions.

Wilson shot her a look. “I’m just trying to know if he’s suffering from anything else Willow.”

“Yeah, well give him a question at a time. He just woke up.” At that, the sound of a stomach rumbling caught their attention. The spider wrapped his arms around his mid-section, looking rather sheepish.

Wilson’s brows shot up into his wild hair. “Ah! Yes! Food! I almost forgot. Wait right here. I’ll be back with something for you to eat.” Wilson got up and went to the crock pots, mumbling something under his breath as he started putting in ingredients.

Willow rolled her eyes, smirking a bit. It was good seeing Wilson doing something other than focusing on one thing all the time. Even if it was good intentions to help some over grown spider… speaking of which. “Hey, kid.”

The spider blinked, turning their head towards her.

“You got a name? Or should we just call you spider?”

“Willow!” Willow only shrugged as the spider looked down, playing with its( _ **HIS**_ ) web beard again.

“… I don’t know my name.” They finally said after a while. “I-I know I have one but I… I don’t remember it?”

“So, do you have a name or not?” Willow leaned her head against her hand.

“Willow don’t be rude. He probably has some amnesia.” Wilson came over with two stacks of waffles, handing one to her and one for the spider.

The spider tilted his head, looking at Wilson questionably. “What’s am… amn… amnesha?”

“ _Amnesia_ is what you call when someone losing some or all of their memory.” Wilson clarified, sitting down next to the spider again, rubbing his chin. “Though, if you can’t remember your name, then it’s going to be quite troubling to know what to call you.”

“Me mould musm smim miff mimmef.” Willow, mouth full of waffles, suggested.

“Willow don’t talk with your mouth full, it’s a choking hazard. And we’re not calling him _spider_. We need to give him a proper name to call him.”

Willow swallowed her meal. “Well, what do you want to call him then?”

Wilson hummed, looking at the spider child, who was nibbling on a waffle, looking at them up and down. “Hmm… well, it has to be a good name. One that’s easy to remember…” He snapped his fingers. “I got it! Jason Mickharing Tesaverse Esquire!”

… Willow threw her plate at his head.

“OW!”

“We are _not_ calling him that.”

“It’s a good name!”

“It’s too long genius! Think of something shorter!”

“Okay, okay. Uh… Thunderaidium?”

“Too long.”

“Einstein?”

“Ein—what?”

“It’s short of einsteinium. A chemical element of—”

“Who would name anyone after an _element_?”

“Plenty of people would!”

“Yeah well it’s not happening!”

“It’s a good name!”

“I don’t want to be named after an element…”

“Ha! See?”

“Whatever! Uh… James P. Sullivan?”

“No, feels like someone else’s name.”

“… Eh, you’re right. Umm, Berry?”

“What?”

“Well he _looks_ like a Berry.”

“We are not calling him that! Plus he doesn’t look anything like a berry!”

“Ugh! Fine! Uh, Will Jr.?”

“ **NO.** ”

“NiGHTS?”

“I feel like you worded that in a weird way, but no.”

“Silky?”

“Mmm, close. But still no.”

“Ironwood?”

“Okay you’re being ridiculous now!”

Wilson glared at her. “Well if you don’t like any of my names, then why don’t you pick one then?”

“Gladly.” Willow sat back on her log, looking at the spider carefully. If she was going to name something, it would have to be better than _Mickharing_. Something that really fit well with the spider.

She eyed their head, limbs, eyes, just anything that could give her something to work with. Her eyes landed on the white beard on the spider’s face, covered with crumbs from eating the waffle. It wasn’t like Wilson’s own beard when it grew out. It was silky and smooth looking. Not like Wilson’s rough and scraggly bread when it grew out. But then again being made out of web instead of hair helped with that.

Web.

Beard.

Web beard.

_Weeeb beearrd._

_Webbeard._

_Web_ …

“Webber.” Willow smirked, crossing her arms. “Let’s call him Webber.”

The spider, _Webber_ , blinked and looked at her in surprise. “Web… ber?”

“Yeah. Webber. Kinda like web and beard smashed together. Your beard’s made out of webs so why not?” Willow smiled in triumph as Webber (it really fit them) smiled back and nodded his head.

“Yeah. Yeah! Webber! I like it!” Webber smiled, giggling a bit. It was… kind of cute.

“… I thought Jason Mickharing Tesaverse Esquire was a good name.” Wilson sighed unhappily.

)*(

Summer past quickly, and soon it was autumn.

A wonderful time of the year to gather food, hunt Gobblers, burn down trees, and gather anything that they need to survive winter. Willow wasn’t sure how seasons worked in this place. Time seemed to pass by quickly in this place then in the real world. (Or wherever they were.)

“Miss Willow! Miss Willow!” Willow turned around as Webber bounded towards her with something following after him. “Look what I found Miss Willow!”

“Webber, I told you. Willow is just fine.” Willow couldn’t help but smiled as Webber stopped in front of her, bouncing in place with a huge smile on his (oddly creepily adorable) face. She looked down beside him at the strange creature. “What is this?”

“I don’t know! But he keeps following me around! Watch!” Webber run off, quickly being followed by the strange orange creature that bounded after him. Webber laughed as he ran circles around Willow, the creature not far behind him.

“Well, it looks like you made a new friend Webber.” Willow giggled a bit as Webber’s laughing was getting contagious. “But why is it following you? Do you have something that it wants?”

Webber stopped running. “Mmm… Oh yeah! This!” He pulled out something that made Willow do a double take. It looked like a bone… with an eyeball on top. It blinked at her. (Creepy.) “He sort of popped up out of nowhere and started following me after I pick this up! It’s kind of creepy!”

Willow hummed, holding out her hand. “Webber, can you give me that for just a moment?” Webber obliged, handing her the bone. She held it up for the creature to see (if it had eyes) and started walking. Immediately it followed after her. “Huh. Guess this little guy follows whoever is holding this bone.” She stopped, kneeling in front of the odd panting creature.

“Does this mean we can keep him?!” Webber asked, bouncing on the spot.

“Hang on Webs. We should probably let Wilson see him first just to be sure it’s safe enough to keep.” Willow patted the creature’s head. She had a feeling that it was passive enough not to be dangerous, but she knew Wilson would want to study this thing before giving the okay.

In the distance, an explosion went off.

The two looked to the distance where the base laid, seeing a large black smoke cloud rising up towards the sky.

“… After he comes back from the dead.” Willow sighed.


	3. WX-78

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Long chapter and mentions of blood

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

_CLACK_

They growled, kicking away a stone that had been hidden under the snow in their path.

They hated snow. So, SO much. It was frozen water that fell from the sky on a yearly cycle, yet the days and nights here were inconclusive. Months were seemingly strange here. Seasons only lasted to forty or fifty days. Clearly not normal stander seasons.

This was not what they envisioned their plan of conquest to go. They had planned to overpower the weak human race, ruling everything with a metal fist and iron word, reshaping the world to their own image. Not be stuck in a strange world filled with unidentified creatures!

If their creator had only installed they with a weapon, like a gun, or a flamethrower, or a chainsaw! It would make their existence and plan for world domination so much easier! Pigpeople only followed them for so long before the food ran out. And they didn’t like sharing!

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

_CLUNK_

Their gears whirled with rage, swinging back their leg and kicking away a foolish dead human’s skull.

Curse this snow! It hid everything in their path! If they only had the resources to burn it all away, they would do it!

“INFERIOR SNOW! YOU WILL NOT CONQUER US! WE WILL CONQUER YOU!” They shouted at the sky, kicking a tree to prove their point.

Snow fell lose from the tree’s branches, landed on top of their head and blocking their visors. They let out a string of curses, trying to be rid of the inferior white froze liquid.

Having enough of the stupid inferior snow, they took out their axe, swinging it at the tree with wild energy. Each swing made them feel powerful as they took out their anger on the inanimate object till it fell over.

“NATURE IS OVERRATED!” They shouted, giving the stump a good hard kick and turned to leave.

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

_CRUNCH_

**_THUD_ **

They froze.

**_THUD_ **

That sounded heavy.

**_THUD_ **

… And close.

**_THUD_ **

Turning their head, they looked up. They didn’t have time to move out of the way as clawed branches came down on them.

)*(

“Pitter patter, pitter patter! Rain rain rain! Water falls from the sky to make the ground not so dry! Don’t know why, just because! Pitter patter, pitter patter! Rain rain rain!” Webber sung aloud as they marched along their path with Chester’s eye bone in one hand and twirling the umbrella Mister Wilson gave him in the other hand.

The spring season had begun, so everything was wet, wet, wet. Mister Wilson had explained that spring was a good time of the year when food should start coming back after sleeping through the winter. When the plants come back to life and animals start coming out of hibernation. It was also the time to cut off their beards since they would only get wet and soggy.

Which was a little sad since he liked having a silky beard. (And helping Miss Willow braid flowers in Wilson’s long beard when he was sleeping was also kind of funny.) But he didn’t like the idea of being wet all the time, so the silky beard had to go. He was getting better with the razor too! He only managed to cut himself five times! That was six times less than before!

Though Wilson still had to help him shave off the rest afterwards. But he told him that he was getting much better at it!

Webber’s foot splashed in a puddle, making the young spider freeze and look down. His own reflection stared back at him, eight blinking eyes and four extra legs and all. His face broke out into a grin and he started jumping around in the puddle with Chester right behind him, kicking up water and laughing with glee.

“Isn’t this great Chester? Spring is pretty neat!” Webber giggled, spinning around and making droplets of water fly off their umbrella. “Everything is nice and wet! And Mister Wilson says that we won’t have to worry about food as much now! So we don’t have to worry about going hungry or starving through the season!”

He paused for a moment. “Although, Miss Willow doesn’t seem to like it too much.” Webber frowned a bit. He couldn’t see why Miss Willow hated spring. It was so much fun! You get to splash in puddles, run around in the rain, get extra food, and have so much fun!

But she insisted that spring was awful and kept shouting out how much she hated it so much back at the base. He would have stuck around more as Miss Willow continued to scream how she was going to burn the sky, but Mister Wilson had asked him to do a very important task and sent him off. He liked helping out with important tasks!

Like the time when Miss Willow had a strange look in her eyes and fiddled with her lighter a lot more than usual and Mister Wilson asked him to go gather some ice. (The base ((and Mister Wilson)) had a few burnt patches when he got back but otherwise it was alright.) Or the time that the ground was shaking and Mister Wilson sent him to go gather some fish because they were running low. (For some reason half of the base was destroyed when he got back and Wilson was a ghost! ((Not a fun way to learn about death in this world…)) And Miss Willow was a little bruised but alright.) Or that time Mister Wilson ate something and starting acting funny and Miss Willow sent him to go gather some honey from the bee boxes to make ice cream! Yum! But none of the bees wanted to give up their honey so he couldn’t get any. Aw. Miss Willow told him that it was okay he didn’t get the honey and he did a good job anyway. (Mister Wilson would have told him the same thing buuuuut he was a ghost again when he got back.)

… He had a strange feeling that there was more to these important tasks than Mister Wilson and Miss Willow seemed to let on…

OH WELL! Didn’t matter too much right now! He had an important job to do right now!

“Come on Chester! The sooner we collect those frogs, the sooner we can get back to base!” Webber marched on, determined to gather enough frogs that would last the whole team through spring…

Didn’t stop him from splashing in the puddles along the way though~

“Splish splash! Splish splash!” Webber laughed, jumping from one puddle to the next. Chester followed after him, jumping into the puddles and getting into the fun as well. Water was sent fly as the spider boy and his living furry chest hopped from one small body of water to the next.

_SPLASH_

_SPLASH_

_SPLASH_

_SPLASH_

_CLUNK_

Webber froze.

That… didn’t sound like splashing water…

“Did… did you hear something?” Webber asked Chester, looking around carefully. Mister Wilson had warned him that he had to be careful when he was away from the base. Anything was capable of killing them out here, so he had to be on the alert when he was away from the safety of the base.

“M… maybe it was just my imagination.” Webber gripped the bone tightly, ready to bolt if needed. Chester whined, huddling up against his legs. Webber took this as a bad sign. Chester was normally happy and bouncy when things were alright. He only started whining when there was something scaring him close by.

He listened carefully against the raindrops, waiting for that sound.

“…”

_Patter_

_Patter_

_Patter_

_Patter_

_CLUNK_

Webber jumped. There it was again! He scanned between the trees, looking for… whatever made that sound.

_“Just remember Webber. You don’t need to fight everything you see. If it doesn’t see you and you don’t feel like fighting, you can easily turn around and leave. Most creatures will leave you alone once you get far away enough from them.”_

Mister Wilson’s words rang in Webber’s head, bring some comfort to his mind. Right. Most monsters would stop chasing after him once he was far out of their grasp. He really didn’t want to fight right now, and the strange noise—

_CLUNK_

… sounded really really close now.

“G-get ready to run boy.” Webber told Chester. His legs felt wobbly and wouldn’t stop shaking, wishing that Mister Wilson or Miss Willow had gone with him right now.

_CLUNK_

The sound was much closer now.

That’s when Webber spotted it. A creature looming in the trees. Staring right. At. **Him**.

Webber took a deep breath and screamed—

)*(

“WILSON GIVE ME BACK MY LIGHTER!”

“No! You almost set the base on fire!”

“GIVE ME BACK MY LIGHTER!”

“I can’t trust you not to set the base on fire Willow! I’ll give it back later when you’ve calmed down!”

“NO! GIVE IT BACK NOW!” Willow made another mad grab for her lighter, but Wilson kept it out of her reach.

Wilson had to admit, he wasn’t sure if it was ever a good idea to ever take Willow’s lighter away from her. Sure he had many times wished that he didin the past, but he never found the heart to go through with it. Not until now of course.

“Listen to me Willow! I know you hate spring—”

“LIKE BLOODY HECK I DO!”

“But trying to set everything on fire _isn’t_ going to help!”

“JUST ONE TREE! I PROMISE JUST TO LIGHT ONE TREE ON FIRE!”

“No! Not with the threat of Tree Guardians looming over you! You already have enough of them angry with you!”

“TO BLOODY HECK WITH TREE GUARDIANS! JUST LET ME BURN SOMETHING!”

“Willow!” Wilson kept the lighter out of her reach, his arms shaking to keep the woman away from her most dangerous tool (besides Bernie) from her grasp. They’ve been stuck in a deadlock of reaching and keeping away for a while now. He was sort of surprised that Willow wasn’t trying to do anything other than reaching for—

“ _GIVE ME BACK MY LIGHTER WILSON!_ ” Willow lunged at him, tackling the scientist to the ground. Wilson, not expecting the action or time to retaliate, was pinned to the ground as Willow grabbed her lighter and yanked it out of his grip. “HA! Not So Smug Now Huh?!” She taunted, holding her lighter in front of his face…

But started frowning when she noticed the pained look on Wilson’s face. “… Wilson? You okay?” She got off of him, sitting down right beside him as he slowly (and painfully judging by the pained grunts he was making) sat up.

“ _Peachy_.” Wilson grunted through his teeth, rubbing his lower back.

Willow’s frown deepened. “What’s wrong with your back?” She moved behind him, but Wilson sharply (while managing to restrain making any noise of pain) turned around, putting on a smile (that felt very off to Willow).

“I’m fine! It’s nothing. Just wasn’t expecting you to jump like that.” Wilson chuckled a little, putting on a good smile… that Willow wasn’t buying one bit.

“Wilson. Take off your shirt.”

Wilson’s face became bright red. “ _WILLOW!_ ”

“I don’t mean it like _that_ genius!”

“Well you _implied_ it like that!”

“But you know that I didn’t!”

“Yes but you could have said much different than _that!_ ”

“Oh for bloody! Come here you!” Willow lunged at him again, but this time Wilson was more prepared and kept her back.

“Willow get your hands off me!”

“Let me see your back!”

“No!”

“This would go a lot easier if you would just cooperate!”

“I told you I’m fine!”

“No you’re not! Stop lying!”

“I’m not lying and I told you I’m fine!”

“No you’re not!”

“Yes I am!”

“No you’re not!”

“Yes I—WAH!” Willow once again jumped on top of him, pinning him to the ground once again. “Willow! This is really not necessary!” Wilson hiss through his teeth.

“And you’re being a big baby!” Willow hissed back, her fingers fumbling with the buttons on Wilson’s vest and managing to get a few before Wilson managed to free one hand and grab her wrist.

“I am not!”

“Are too!”

“Release me this instant!”

“No!”

“Willow, I insist that—”

“ _MISS WILLOW! MISTER WILSON!_ ” Just then, Webber and Chester came running into the base, panting and out of breath and noticeably wet without his umbrella. “Mister Wilson! Miss Willow! There’s a—” He paused when he looked up and saw Willow sitting on top of Wilson (and their red flushed faces), with one hand pinned to the ground above his head and the other holding Willow’s hand. “… What are you doing?”

“ _Nothing!_ ” Both adults quickly parted away, scooting a good distance from each other.

“But why was Miss Willow sitting on top of—”

“W-Webber, what are you doing back at the base? So… early?” Wilson coughed into his hand, trying to change the subject.

Webber looked confused for a moment before their eight eyes widened. “Oh yeah! The monster!”

“Monster?” Wilson tilted his head as Webber ran up to him, grabbing his arm and started tugging on it.

“Yeah! The monster! You have to come see it!”

“Webber, there’s plenty of monsters in this place. I’m sure it’s nothing new to what you’ve seen already.” Willow said, pulling Webber away from Wilson gently.

“No! This one was different! I-It was tall! A-and it made this clunking noise!”

“Sounds like a Clockwork.” Wilson shrugged.

“No! It was moving funny and it chased me! I-I didn’t get a good look at it, b-but it wasn’t a Clockwork!”

Willow and Wilson shared a look.

“… Well.” Wilson licked his lips, slowly getting up on his feet (ignoring the look Willow was giving him). “It could possibly be a damaged Clockwork. Maybe a bishop or a knight by the sound of it. Best if I take a look at this _monster_. We could use the gears—”

“Hold it Willdork.” Willow placed a hand on Wilson’s chest, stopping him. “ _I’ll_ go with Webber and see this monster. _You_ stay here and watch the base till we get back. Come on Webs.” Willow marched off, followed by a slightly reluctant Webber.

Wilson stood there with his mouth agape, blinking once or twice before he got his bearings. “Excuse me, but what exactly am I supposed to watch over here?!”

Willow paused a moment. She looked back at Wilson and the base for a moment. Then she looked down at Chester, smiled, and held her hand out to Webber. The arachnid child blinked at her for a moment before handing her the eye bone. She walked back up to Wilson, handing the confused scientist the bone with a smile. “You can watch Chester and make sure none of the items we stored in him get damaged.” With that, she turned around and walked back to Webber. “Now show me where you saw this monster Webber.”

Wilson could only stare in shock as the two left him standing there in the rain, completely alone (except for Chester) at the base. A while after their form had disappeared, Wilson sighed, his shoulders sagging and ran a hand through his hair under the yellow hat. “Right. You… go do that.”

Chester whined a little, rubbing against Wilson’s leg.

“I’m fine Otto von Chesterfield. No need to get worried.” Wilson bent down and patted the furry chest. He winced as he stood back up, rubbing his lower back. Chester whined again, sensing something wrong with his master. Wilson sighed a bit. “As fine as I’ll ever be.” He muttered, heading towards his tent.

)*(

“Why did you do that to Mister Wilson?”

“Do what?” Willow asked as she kept walking.

“Leave him back at the base. He could have helped!”

Willow sighed, shaking her head. “Look, Webber. Wilson’s being a bit… stubborn lately. He just needs some time to himself for a bit and he’ll snap right back to his old self again.”

“Oh…”

“Plus I’m pretty sure he’s got an injury somewhere on his back that would only get worse if he came along with us.”

“Oh. _Oooooh!_ ” Webber’s eyes widened. “Okay! I guess that makes sense.”

“Exactly. Now, where did you say you saw this monster?” Willow looked around, not seeing any monster.

“Here! It was around here that I saw it!” Webber pointed at the trees. “It was hiding in the trees when I saw it!”

Willow took out her spear, stepping closer to the trees as Webber hung back. She looked between the trees, looking for any sign of the creature. “Are you sure you saw it here Webber? I don’t see anything.”

“I’m sure of it! I saw it right here on my way to the ponds to collect frogs!” Webber confirmed. “Look!” Webber went up to one of the trees, pointing at it. “I hit this tree with my umbrella when I threw it at the monster! There’s a hole in the tree where it got stuck when I missed!”

Willow went over to the tree, squinting her eyes to see through the rain. Right where Webber was pointing was a small hole. “Huh. Okay. But, if this is the place you saw it, where is it?” She looked around again. “… And on a different note, where’s the umbrella?”

“Maybe the monster took it?”

“Why would a monster need an umbrella?”

“Maybe it doesn’t like rain?”

“Well that’s something we can agree on.” Willow muttered. She gave the area one last look before sighing. “Look Webber. Let’s head back to the base for now. I don’t trust Wilson being on his own for too long and who knows what that wacko is up to now.”

“But what about the monster?”

“We’ll worry about it tomorrow kid.” Willow patted Webber’s head, cringing at the wet fur. “Right now we need to get you out of the rain and get you dry before you catch a cold.”

“Okay.” Webber sighed as Willow led them away.

Unknown to both of them however, they were being watched in the cover of the trees deeper in, holding tightly to a missing umbrella…

)*(

The trip back to base was uneventful, save for a few frogs in their path, but at least they managed to get back in one piece (with a few frog legs to store). Chester was certainly happy to see them again, and the first thing Willow did when she saw Wilson working on a faulty alchemy machine was hit him on the head and drag him away with the excuse that he was going to electrocute himself to death (again) working on that in the rain.

“So you found nothing then? No monster?”

“Nope.” Willow popped a berry in her mouth. “Nothing was there when we looked. And nothing looked out of place or have any signs of a ‘monster’.” Willow made some hand quotes in the air, popping another berry in her mouth.

“No tracks? Nothing out of the sort?” Wilson propped his elbows against his knees. “Just a missing umbrella?”

“Just a missing umbrella.” Willow shrugged, finishing up the last of her berries. “I honestly did really think it’s a monster though. Could have been a Krampas that spooked him. He probably did something naughty and summoned them.”

“Sweet little Webber?” Wilson looked over at the said child. Webber was fast asleep safe and dry under his canvas tarp made out of Beefalo skin, using Chester as a stand-in pillow. “That boy hardly does anything naughty.”

“Yeah. He’s too much of a good kid.” Willow agreed, adding another log to the fire. “Maybe Krampas came because of us?”

“If it was Krampas, it should have appeared somewhere closer to the base and steal the rest of our stuff.” Wilson pointed out. “Though I won’t count that out as a possibility.”

“Good, cause it’s the only explanation that I got.” Willow stuck her hand in the fire, let the heat dance on her skin. She was ever grateful to be born immune to fire, a slight perk to have in many useful situations. (Even more grateful to have understanding people who didn’t judge her passion for fire.) She smiled at Wilson, who seemed to be deep in thought. Muttering to himself.

“I was sure that… no no, didn’t kill enough… could it possibly be… not sure if they could steal anything… so what if… no, those hands couldn’t grab anything… what if…” Wilson continued to mutter to himself, not noticing Willow scooting closer and closer to him. He didn’t even flinch as she took off his rain hat and started messing with his hair, pulling on locks of black strands and braiding them. “So could… no, that’s not right… maybe if… could happen…”

Willow smiled at her work when she was finished, nodding with satisfactory. “Hey, Wilson. I’m going to get some shut eye. You okay watching the fire while I’m gone?”

“Hm? Oh, yes yes. Sure. You go do… do.”

Willow rolled her eyes but smiled, heading to her tent, leaving the scientist to guard the fire as he continued to mutter to himself.

)*(

Something was poking Willow.

“Miss Willow? Miss Willow? Are you awake?”

Willow groaned, turning over and burying her face against Bernie. “Webber, it’s too early… go bother Wilson…”

“But Miss Willow! The monster! It stole some of our stuff!” Willow’s eyes shot open.

“What?!” Willow shot up, startling Webber. She left her tent, expecting to see the base in ruins but was surprised to see everything intact.

Aside for a few opened (and empty) chests laid about.

“What happened?!” Willow went to one of the empty chests, setting up right.

“Apparently we’ve been robbed last night.” Wilson looked up from his chest with a deep scowl. “Most of the items that were stolen were our food and medical supplies.”

Willow hurried to her chest, opening it up and checking everything before sighing with relief. “Everything is still in my chest.”

“Mine too.” Webber picked up Chester. “And Chester has all of his stuff still inside of him! I checked and double checked!”

“That’s good. But.” Wilson sighed, closing his chest. “Most of my equipment is missing. All the spider glands are gone. The gears and parts that I’ve been collecting are gone too. Even the mosquito sacks that we managed to collect.” He shook his head. “Either Maxwell wants to see us suffer badly this season, or we’ve got a robber on our hands.”

“Or the monster!” Webber piped up. “The monster could have done it to!”

“Weren’t you on watch last night Wilson?” Willow asked, putting the turned over chests back in their proper places. “You should have seen something stealing our stuff right?”

“Sadly, no.” Wilson got up (slowly). “I’m sad to admit it but I passed out next to the fire last night, not in a very comfortable position either, when Webber awoke me this morning alerting me that we had been robbed. So I didn’t see anyone or anything coming into the base and steal from us last night. I’m sorry.”

“You slept in the rain?!” Willow shouted, startling the scientist. “Wilson that’s stupid! Why didn’t you sleep in your tent?!”

“I fell asleep by accident! I didn’t mean to sleep out in the rain!” Wilson held up his hands (not understanding why Willow was angry at him for sleeping outside in the rain instead of the fact that they were literally _robbed_ last night) taking a step back.

“Yeah! It was an accident Miss Willow!” Webber stepped in. “Mister Wilson couldn’t help it if he fell asleep on duty! Or it could have been the monster’s fault too! Just like how it stole our stuff and messed with Mister Wilson’s hair!”

“Now hold on, let’s not blame it all on… wait. It did what to my hair?” Wilson ran his fingers through his hair, feeling knots and clumps of hair tied together. His eye widened. “Uh… e-excuse me a moment.” The scientist took off, walking briskly away from the camp with his hands still gripping his hair.

Willow shook her head, looking around the camp. “Come on Webber. Help me find some clues.”

“What clues?”

“You know. Tracks, anything that our mystery robber could have left behind.” Willow checked behind the tents. “Just anything in general that can help us out here.”

“But what about Mister Wilson?”

“He’ll be fine on his own… okay scratch that. You look around the base for any clues while I go get Mr. Genius before he sees his reflection.”

“Ten four!” Webber saluted as Willow marched off. As soon as she was gone from earshot, Webber looked down at Chester. “You know, if Miss Willow didn’t tend to mess with Mister Wilson’s hair a lot, we would have a lot more help looking for clues.”

)*(

“You need to _STOP_ messing with my hair Willow!”

Willow rolled her eyes as the pair walked back to base. “Oh come _on!_ It wasn’t THAT bad. I didn’t even put anything in it this time!”

“Yes, but you really need to learn about personal space!” Wilson huffed, working out the last of the knots that he _insisted_ needed to come out first before they could head back to base.

“You need to learn to be more aware of your surroundings mister.”

Wilson groaned, rolling his eyes. “I can’t believe you! You get harder and harder to understand each day!”

“And you just happen to get easier and easier to understand every day.” Willow flicked her finger against the tip of Wilson’s nose.

Wilson froze, staring at Willow with his mouth agape. “I… I do not!”

“You sure do! Let’s see.” Willow spun around, holding up one hand. “Mmm, you don’t like cooked mandrake. You tend to fall asleep in random places after staying up on nights end. You sneak out at night to get items so we don’t run short on supplies. You scratch yourself behind the left ear when you haven’t done anything science related in hours. It left a scar by the way. You can’t stay in one place for too long. You rub your left palm a lot when you feel self-conscious and think no one’s looking. You secretly like to draw in your journal—”

“TH-THAT’S PERSONAL!”

“Annnnnnd what else. Oh! Right!” Willow leaned close to Wilson’s face, glaring daggers at him. “You don’t let others know when you have a bad or serious injury so we won’t have to worry.”

Wilson’s eyebrows shot up into his hair. “… I-I don’t know what you’re talking—”

“Stop lying to me Wilson!” Willow stomped her foot on the ground, making Wilson jump. “You’re obviously hiding a wound that you won’t let me see! You’ve been moving slowly, you keep rubbing your back like you’re in pain, but you won’t let me help you!” She poked his ribs roughly. “Why won’t you just let me help you when you need it?! You’re always helping me and Webber out when we need medical care, so why won’t you let me help you?!”

Willow panted, continuing to glare daggers into Wilson’s wide surprised eyes. “… You know what? Forget it.” Willow sharply turned around, folding her arms. “This is just a waste of time.”

“W-Willow I—”

“No! Just!” Willow fumed, growling before letting out a hiss. “… Let’s just get back to base, okay? Webber probably found something by now.” With that she marched off, leaving behind a baffled (if not slightly hurt) scientist.

Wilson stared as Willow left him behind, not knowing what to say or do after that little scene.

**“Say pal, you look to be having some friend trouble.”**

The hairs on the back of Wilson’s neck bristled. “Shut. Up. Maxwell.” Wilson’s teeth gritted, tightening his hands into fists.

**“Is that anyway to say hello?”**

“Shut. Up!” Wilson snap, glaring at the taller man hiding in the trees shadows with an open fancy looking umbrella and a smug smirk on his stupid face. “What are you doing here?! Shouldn’t you be off somewhere else causing misery or something?”

**“Just enjoying the little show you and your lady friend put on. And I must say, I’m quite disappointed in you.”**

“For _what?!_ I haven’t done anything wrong!”

Maxwell tsked, waging one finger back and forth. **“Higgsbury, Higgsbury. You certainly don’t know how to talk to women.”**

“I’ll have you know I am perfectly capable talking with women!”

**“Yet you don’t know why Willow is so angry with you, do you?”**

Wilson opened his mouth to retort, to say anything witty back at Maxwell, yet his words dried up. What could he say? He certainly didn’t want Maxwell to know that he was right. “… What are you after Maxwell? Do you have some crazy scheme to make us all suffer? Like what you did last night at the base?”

**“What I did? Good sir, I haven’t done anything. You were just too busy sleeping to notice your little group’s camp was being robbed.”**

Wilson could almost feel a vain pop.

 **“But I am serious. I haven’t done anything as of last night to you or your ragtag group.”** Maxwell took out a cigar. Wilson jumped as lightning flashed and struck a nearby tree, lighting it on fire. **“I’m more of an observant type of person if you will Higgsbury. I don’t stoop to the likes of physical work like the rest of you.”** Maxwell explained, holding the cigar close to the flames. **“No, the fault lies with someone else. And I can’t wait to see how your little group falls apart after this.”**

“What do you mean? What are you planning?!” Wilson growled as Maxwell took a slow drag of his cigar. “If you’re planning on hurting my teammates I swear I’ll—”

 **“You’ll _what?_ ” **Maxwell puffed out a cloud of smoke right into Wilson’s face, making the smaller man gag and gasp for fresh air. **“You can’t do _anything_ to me _Higgsbury_. I rule this world, I am the _King_. You and your friends are just pawns in my little game of chest.”**

Wilson coughed, pounding his chest to get rid of the smoke. “P-Pawns can (HACK!) can t-take down (cough cough) down the k-king (HACK) wi-with the right plan. (HACK! Cough!)”

 **“Maybe, Higgsbury. Maybe.”** Maxwell hummed, turning to leave. **“But pawns are also… _expendable_.” **And with that, he was gone.

“ _Jerk._ ” Wilson wheezed, getting his breathing back to normal.

“I’ll say.”

“Gah!” Wilson, for what felt like the tenth time today, jumped, spinning around to see Willow step out from behind a tree. “How long—”

“Enough to know that I still hate that jerk.” Willow huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “Seriously, when are we going to teach that guy a lesson? I’m more than ready to set him on fire!” Willow took out her lighter, flicking the handle a few times. She frowned when she saw the look on Wilson’s face. “Hey, you okay?”

Wilson opened his mouth but closed after a second. Shaking his head. “We… we need to get back to camp and check up on Webber.”

“… Okay. He’s probably side tracked by now.”

)*(

Webber had never been so laser focused before.

Miss Willow kept telling him that his mind tended to wander a lot, but that wasn’t true! He was super focused! In fact, he was following a very interesting trail that he found near the base.

“I wonder what left these behind…” Webber hummed, keeping his eight eyes on the path. “What do you think Chester?”

Chester followed after Webber, bouncing at high speed just to keep up with the spider.

“Whatever it is, it left behind a deep trail in the mud!” Webber looked up, trying to see were the trail headed towards. “It looks to keep on-Wah!” Webber slipped, falling face first into the slippery muddy ground. Chester bounded up to him, whining with concern and pawing his head. “We’re okay!” Webber sat up, wiping the mud out from five of his eight eyes. “Guess Mister Wilson wasn’t kidding when he said to be careful where I step.”

He got back on his feet, looking up again. The trail led to some berry bushes. Sadly, all the berries seemed to have been picked clean from the bushes. Stepping closer, Webber parted some of the bushes away, peering in a small clearing. He gasped, eyes widening to what he found.

“It’s a small base!” Webber exclaimed, stepping into the clearing. Indeed, Webber had stumbled upon a base consisting a small lit campfire, a poorly made siesta lean-to, and a couple of wooden chests. “Wow! Is this a secrete base?! Mister Wilson didn’t tell me about this place!” Webber smiled, heading towards the chest and opening it. “I wonder what’s in here?” He peered inside. His smile slowly started to fade.

“… Hey. Wait. This is.” He reached in, taking out a spider gland and some sort of machine part. A very familiar machine part. “This is one Mister Wilson’s missing parts. And our spider glands.” Webber looked deeper in the chest. “And all our missing food!” Webber gasped, looking down at Chester. “All our missing stuff! It’s all here Chester!”

Chester whined, pawing at the chest.

“Someone must have used this secret base as a hideout! And took all our stuff here!” Webber rummaged through the chest, pulling out a blueprint. “But, who took? Who would take all of our stuff?” Webber looked at the blueprint. It had Mister Wilson’s handwriting allover it with some side notes and detail notes. It… looked like a hat? That looked like a Moleworm? “Was it Krampas? A ghost?” He starred at the blueprint. “Or… maybe… it was the—”

“BARK BARK!” Chester suddenly jumped up and down barking loudly. Webber twisted his head to look at him and saw moment from the two of his eight eyes. He twisted around, looking up to see—

“THE MONSTER!” Webber screamed, ducking out of the way as an axe came swinging down, cutting into the wood of the chest. Webber backed away, looking back in fear as the monster pulled out the axe and turned its eye onto them. Webber, panicking and afraid, reached behind himself for his backpack.

“S-Stay back! I-I-I’m warning you!” Webber shouted, pulling out his spear and pointing it at the monster. “I! I know how to use this!”

The monster stood there for a moment before suddenly lunging at him. Webber screamed and dodged the attack, landing a few hits on the monster before dodging again. “Stay away from me!”

The monster kept advancing, swinging the axe wildly about and getting closer and closer with its attacks. The axe swung down, cutting Webber’s spear in two. Webber looked at his broken weapon in alarm. He looked back at the monster, backing away as it advanced towards him, raising its axe high above it. Webber’s back pressed against a tree, pinning the young spider to his doom.

“H-HEEEEEELLLLLLLLLP!” Webber screamed out, curling his body for protection as the monster swung down its axe.

_CLANG!_

Webber’s eyes shot open, looking up to see the monster stumble backwards. “Miss Willow!” Webber cried out happily.

“Hey! Ugly tin can! Pick on someone who wants to fight!” Miss Willow screamed charging at the monster. While Miss Willow was busy fighting the monster, Mister Wilson came running up to him, pulling him away.

“Webber! Thank science we found you! How many times have we told you to never stray away from the base without proper protection?!”

“Mister Wilson! I found the monster!” Webber pointed at the monster. “It stole our stuff!”

“And could have very much killed you!” Mister Wilson started checking him over, looking for any signs of injury. “Are you hurt?! Did that… machine get you anywhere?”

“No. I’m okay.” Mister Wilson looked relieved when Webber told him that.

“Thank science. Go back to the base and _stay there_.”

“But what about you and Miss Willow?” Webber asked as Mister Wilson stood, taking out an axe from his bag.

“We’ll be along shortly. Now _go!_ ”

Webber didn’t need to be told twice.

)*(

Willow was battered, bruised, bleeding, ( _WET_ ) and probably with a broken rib or two, but she was standing and still breathing. Surprising considering how much this… _thing_ put up of a fight. She was sure she would be dead by now if Wilson hadn’t helped. Speaking of whom.

“Amazing. Look at this thing.” Wilson spoke in a hush awed tone, siting on his toes as he examined the thing. “It’s a humanoid robot. A very finely built one too.” He lifted one of the robot’s arms, turning it over and inspecting every inch of it. “I really wished we weren’t forced to attack it. It looks to be a complicated model!”

“Yeah. It looks… different than a Clockwork.” Willow poking it with the end of her spear, not trusting that it was fully dead yet. It _looked_ dead (with a missing arm, broken head, open torso on most of its right side, and dents galore), but she just had this feeling…

“I know right?! Who could have built such a thing?” Wilson set the arm down, looking over the rest of the robot. “Such craftsmanship and skill. This must have been built by a genius!” He rapped his knuckles against the robot’s head. “Or a very skilled mechanic at that.” His eyes almost seemed to sparkle (or the rain was playing tricks on her), tracing his hands over the chest of the robot. “Oooo~ I just want to open this up and look inside!” Wilson was almost bouncing on his toes, smiling like a young child.

Willow, despite the day’s events and how physical drained she was feeling, smiled. She hadn’t seen Wilson this giddy in a long while. His eyes sparkled, his hands twitched with held back anticipation, the corners of his mouth turning upwards. He was clearly happy.

“Willow? Would you mind helping me carry this back to the base?”

“What?” Willow blinked, her smile fading completely.

“Help me carry this back to base.” Wilson repeated, already picking fallen pieces and putting them in his bag. “I want to study this robot’s mechanism more thoroughly back at the base.”

“Wha-?! Are you serious?! That thing almost tried to kill us!” Willow jammed her spear at the robot. “And you want to bring it back to camp with us?!”

“It’s dead Willow.” Wilson pointed out, waving one hand over the robot’s face. “It’s not responsive or anything. It’s practically harmless!”

Just as Wilson finished saying that sentence, the robot’s arm (the one that was still attached to its body) suddenly grabbed Wilson by the wrist.

“Gah!”

“Wilson!” Willow sprang forward, grabbing the robot’s arm and tried to free Wilson from its grip.

“FO* _KRRRZZZ_ *MIS* _ZZZZZZT_ *PA* _KZT-ZRT_ *LITH!”

Both of them froze, looking at the robot, which was somehow glaring at them.

“* _KRRR_ *I-* _ZZZZ_ *OU* _CR-C-R-R-R-R_ *NGS!” It screamed out before the light flicker in its eyes, going dark. Its grip on Wilson’s hand let go, falling to the ground in a thud.

They continued to stare at the robot, waiting to see if it would do anything else.

“… No.”

“I didn’t even say anything!”

“You were thinking about it! And the answer is no!” Willow stood up, going to the chests.

“Willow this is the most scientific discovery in robotics that I’ve ever seen! I have to know how it works!”

“That thing stole our stuff Wilson! It’s not like how you found Webber!” Willow began taking stuff out of the chests, placing them in her bag. “Sure I wasn’t sure about him at first, but this one I know for sure is dangerous!”

“I could try reprogramming it. It could be a big help at the base!”

Willow sharply turned her head, her eyes filled with fire that was threatening to burn Wilson where he sat. “You bring that thing back to base, you can kiss this teamwork goodbye!”

… She didn’t like the shocked look on Wilson’s face.

“… you’re not serious… are you?”

Willow turned her head away (ignoring the twisting feeling in her stomach). “Just get over here and help me pack up our stuff.”

)*(

Webber didn’t understand what was going on.

Mister Wilson and Miss Willow hadn’t spoken a word to each other once they returned to the base the other day. They wouldn’t even look at each other. Or even sit by the campfire at night.

Webber wanted to know what was going on, but he felt like he shouldn’t given how Mister Wilson sat by the al… al… alchimny? machine all day (without doing any science!) looking sad and Miss Willow was playing with her lighter a lot more and didn’t respond to him, even when he told her she was getting wet.

“This doesn’t feel right Chester.” Webber ran his hand through Chester’s fur, looking into the fire pit. “Usually Mister Wilson is working away at the allchimnney machine, and Miss Willow would be helping with the chores and then bring Mister Wilson in to help… but.” He looked back at the two. “Mister Wilson hasn’t even touched the alchimey machine, and Miss Willow isn’t messing with his hair.”

Chester whined, rubbing against Webber’s stomach. He too could sense something was wrong between his other two masters.

Webber sighed, adding another log to the fire. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like the silence of the base or that Mister Wilson and Miss Willow were ignoring each other. They always spoke to each other! It was weird seeing them not interact with each other! He had to fix this somehow!

But how?

How could he make them start talking to each other again?

“I need to fix this. But how?” Webber tapped his chin. “Mmm. Ahh. What does Mister Wilson do when he fixes things?” Webber though hard, thinking back as best he could. “They… stopped talking to each other… when they came back… so…” He looked to where the secret base laid. “… Hmmmm… probably wouldn’t be a bad idea…”

)*(

“This was a bad idea.”

Webber stood in the middle of the secret base. Or what was left of it. Not much was left, only a few pieces of wood, a broken lean-to, and a skeleton.

Webber poked the skeleton with his umbrella, frowning a bit. Did Mister Wilson die again fighting the monster? No, wait, his Meat Effigy was still up back at camp. So… was this Miss Willow’s skeleton then?

“OOOOOOO!”

“Gah!” Webber jumped back, looking up at the ghost that was angrily glaring at him.

“OOOOOOO! OOOOOOOOOO!”

Webber blinked. This ghost… looked different. Different from all the other ghosts that popped out of graves Miss Willow robbed. “You look weird mister ghost.” Webber couldn’t help but blurt out.

“ _OOOO?!_ OOOO! OOOOOOO! OO! OOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“Um… I don’t speak ghost.” Webber frowned. The ghost continued to angrily float around screaming in its ghostly wail, making Webber a little nervous. He wasn’t sure what to do. Mister Wilson said that ghosts can make him go insane if he stuck around one for too long, but at the same time, what was he supposed to do?

“OOOOOO!”

Webber jumped a bit, looking at the ghost. “I’m sorry mister ghost. But I got to find out what happened between Mister Wilson and Miss Willow. I wish I could help but…” He blinked, suddenly remembering something.

_“What is that?”_

_“This.” Miss Willow held up the item with a smile. “Is called a Telltale Heart! This baby can revive someone back from the dead! It’s better than a Meat Effigy too!”_

_Webber stared at the beating item. “Better than a Meat Effigy?”_

_“Yep! It doesn’t take a whole lot to craft one, doesn’t spoil, annnd easier to revive someone who forgot that placing a Meat Effigy too close to the science part of the base can easily catch on fire.” Miss Willow smirked at the ghost floating next to her. “And you say that Meat Effigies are the best uses of revival.”_

_Mister Wilson’s ghost rolled his eyes at her. “OoooOOOooohh…”_

“Wait a minute!” Webber shouted, setting his umbrella down, taking off his bag and started to rummage through it. The ghost stopped and watched him. “A-ha!” Webber took out a spider gland and some grass, smiling brightly. “Hang on mister ghost! I’ll fix this!”

The ghost continued to watch him as he set to work making a new heart. “Mister Wilson says that I shouldn’t try to revive people that we don’t know. And that we can’t save everybody. But this is just one time, okay? It’ll be our little secret!” Webber winced as he cut his hand, dripping his blood onto the craft.

It shouldn’t have been possible with just few items to make something living and pulsing, but there it was in Webber’s hands. Beating like a living heart. Webber smiled, holding the heart up to the ghost. “Just be sure not to tell Mister Wilson or Miss Willow okay mister ghost?” The heart pulsed, floating out of Webber’s hands and up into the ghost.

Once the heart vanished inside the ghost, sparks started circling it. The ghost shook as electricity coursed through it, the sounds of a heartbeat growing louder and louder. Four appendages stuck out from the ghost’s body, its from solidifying back into living matter.

Webber, who had been smiling at first, slowly started to frown as the ghost took on more familiar features. Alarms blared in his mind as Telltale Heart finished its job and (to Webber’s horror) the monster landed in front him. Webber backed away, ready to run as the monster looked at him…

… and fell backwards.

Webber blinked. He scooted closer, peering down at the monster. It stared back up at him. Motionless.

“… You’re welcome!”

“I DID* _ZZZT_ *DIDN’T SAY AN-AN-AN-AN-ANYTHING!”

“You were thinking it! … HEY!” Webber’s eyes widened. “You talked!”

“OF COURSE I C-C-C* _Viiirrr_ *CAN TALK! I HAVE* _Krrt_ * HAVE A VOOOOOoooooOOOOCIE BOX FOR SU* _Ffftt_ *UCH CAPABILITY-LITY!”

Webber tilted his head a bit, stepping a bit closer to the monster. “Well, if you had the capability to talk, why didn’t you say anything before?”

“WHY WOULD-WOULD-W-W-WOUL- _WWWOOOWWWOOOO_ -WOULD I?! TALKING T* _Vr-Vr_ *TO YOU FLESH BAAaaaaaAAAAAGS IS A WA-WA* _zzzz_ *WASTE OF MY FUOOooooOOOOoooOONG TIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.”

“Waste of… ties?”

“NO! TIME!”

“Oh! Well that’s mean of you to say!”

“IT’S TR-TR-TR-R-TRUE.”

“Still a mean thing to say!”

“DOES IT LOOK LI-I-I-I-IKE I CAAAaaaaAAAaaARRRrrrrE?!”

Webber frowned. “… Are you okay? You’re talking kinda weird.”

The monster scoffed. “NOW WH-WH-WH-WHOSE BEING R* _Vrrr_ *R-RUUUuuuuDE.”

“I’m just asking.” Webber sat down next to the monster’s head. “It… doesn’t sound too good.”

“YEAH. NO S* _Krrrrrrrrrrrrrr_ *.”

“You know.” Webber poked a lose wire sticking out from one of the monster’s eyes. “If Mister Wilson was here, he could fix you.”

“DON’T TOU* _Kaaack_ *OUCH ME.”

“He’s really great at fixing things!”

“STOP T-T-T-TOUCHING ME.”

“He fixes a lot of stuff back at the base!”

“S-S-STOP IT.”

“He fixes the tents, the alchimiminy machine, Clockworks. Miss Willow kinda banded him from doing that every again.”

“I DEMAND YOOOooooOOOUUU TO STOP!”

“He fixed the tear in my tent, he fixed my umbrella. He even fixed one of my legs when I fell down on a Tooth Trap that one time! He could fix you up in no time Mister Monster!”

“ _THAT’S NOT MY NAME!_ ”

Webber jumped back. The monster glared at him.

“M-M-MY DESSSssssSSSIGNAT-T-TION IS—”

“ _Webber what are you doing with that thing?!_ ”

Webber jumped, being yanked away from the monster and shielded from its sight. “Miss Willow!”

“What are you doing back here?! How is that _thing_ still alive?!” Miss Willow demanded, pointing her spear at the monster (or not monster).

“I-I was just trying to—”

“Do you know how worried you made me and Wilson when we noticed you were gone?! You didn’t even take Chester with you and he has all your weapons still in him!”

Webber looked at the ground, feeling deeply guilty. “… I didn’t think I would need them.”

“That is the dumbest excuse I have ever heard! You always need to carry a weapon on you! This isn’t the safest place on Earth Webber! I’m not even sure if we’re still on the bloody Earth anymore!” Miss Willow continued to yell at him. “What would happen if a Hound attacked happened right this very second?! Do you want to be torn to shreds?! Because that’s what would happen if a Hound attack DID happen! And Wilson can tell you how much THAT hurts!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just looking for answers! I didn’t mean to make you so mad!” Webber coward, covering his head. “I… didn’t think you would notice I was gone…” He whimpered.

Miss Willow stared at him a moment before sighing heavily. “I don’t have time for this right now. Let’s just get back to base.” She grabbed his bag and umbrella and handing both items to him before grabbing one of his hands. “You worried Wilson to death Webber, I hope this make you think twice about wandering away on your own.”

“Mister Wilson died again?!” Webber gasped, not seeing Willow roll her eyes as she pulled him along.

“… don’t l-leave me i-i-in the rain…”

Webber glanced back, looking at the monster. It looked… sad? Scared? Both? He didn’t know. He glanced up at Miss Willow then at his umbrella.

Quietly, without making any sudden movement, Webber dropped his umbrella to the ground behind him.

)*(

Grounded.

Wilson never thought he would have to force such sweet boy into penalty for wandering away. And reviving the robot he and Willow worked so hard to kill too! (He still had the bruising from the fight for science sake!) Sadly, it had to be done.

Webber was grounded from leaving the base and lost his privilege to play with other spiders. (Wilson felt his heart break when Webber started crying.)

“Hey.” Wilson looked up from his journal.

“Hey.” He scoot over, allowing Willow room to sit on the log. Silence took over as they both sat there in the rain, not speaking a word to each other. He _wanted_ to say something to Willow, anything at all. He missed their little talks and small banters. (He even missed Willow messing with his hair, but he would never admit to that.)

“Is he still crying?” Willow’s voice made him jump a bit, glancing at her. She wasn’t looking at him, staring straight ahead.

“… Yes. Unfortunately. He still hasn’t stopped crying the day we grounded him.” Wilson looked ahead to where Webber was sitting. The poor spider boy was tied to a pole (Willow’s doing) with only a rain hat keeping him safe from the wetness. That and a blanket that Wilson had given him to keep him warm. “And this is the fifth day! Poor boy is going to dehydrate himself if he keeps crying.”

“Well maybe next time he’ll think twice before wandering off on his own and giving us a bloody scare!” Willow grumbled, making Wilson flinch and look back at her. “He could have gotten himself killed! Or hurt! Or something!” Willow huffed, crossing her arms.

“I… I can see why you would be upset with him. But, isn’t this a bit much?”

“Back at the orphanage, they used to throw me in the closet and lock me in there for misbehavior. This is nothing.” Wilson flinched.

“S… Sorry.”

“Don’t you start apologizing, I’m still mad at you.”

“For what? I’m not even sure what I did anymore to upset you!”

Willow looked at him, staring at him for a while before sighing and getting off the log. “I’m going to go chop some wood.”

“Oh, o… kay.” Wilson watched her as she left, not finding the courage to tell her that they had plenty of fire wood. With a sigh he turned back to his journal, staring at the blank page he opened up on. Only, he didn’t know what to write down in it anymore.

“M-Mister Wilson?”

Wilson blinked, looking back up from his journal. “Yes Webber? What is it?”

“Do y* _hic_ *you hear s-something?”

“… Hear something?” Wilson tilted his head, listening carefully. Nothing much stood out to him. All he could hear was the rain falling, Willow rummaging through her chest, the cracking of the fire, the honking of Moosegoose in the far distance.

**_thud_ **

Wilson froze. He defiantly heard _that_. Whatever that was. He glanced around the camp, slowly getting to his feet.

“Mister W-Wilson?”

“Shh.” Wilson scanned the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

“Say Wilson! Today sure is wet huh?!” Wilson snapped his head towards Willow. He made a motion to be quiet. “I’m mean, it’s weather like this that’s great for Moosegoose hunting!” Willow nodded her head towards the drying racks. “We’re getting pretty low on the meat anyway!”

Wilson, confused by Willow’s sudden behavior, glanced at the drying racks. (Why they keep using them in the wet season of spring, he’ll never know.) That’s when he spotted a metal arm sticking out of a peculiar bush with an umbrella sticking out of the top reaching for one of the hanging meats. It quickly retreated back into the bush when Wilson turned his head.

Ah.

“Why yes Willow! Today sure is pretty wet!” Wilson slowly inched towards the drying racks, keeping his movements slow. “But are you sure we need the meat?! We’ve got plenty hung up on all our drying racks!”

“Oh I’m sure we need the extra meat!” Willow slowly took out her spear and her lighter. “I think the Gobblers are more active today to!”

“What makes you say that?!” Wilson reached into his back pocket, pulling out his Tail o' Three Cats whip.

“Oh! Just a hunch!” Willow was reading her spear, inching up to the bush. “Especially since this bush just _RANDOMLY APPEARED!_ ” She jabbed her spear at the bush, missing by an inch as the robot jumped out of the way. Wilson, whip ready, cracked his wrist the moment the robot jumped out of the way of Willow’s attack, catching the robot by its legs with the whip. The robot only had a moment to look at its legs in surprise before Willow delivered a powerful blow to its jaw with the end of her spear, sending it toppling to the ground.

Willow pointed her spear in its face, stomping one foot on its chest to keep it down on the ground. “HA! Thought you could steal from us again, didja?! Well too bad! You’re not getting away with it this time!”

Wilson came up to the pair, keeping the tension with the whip tight in case the robot tried to struggle free. “Well, well. What a surprise to see you here. Came back for another round?”

The robot looked between them, glaring at them through its broken optics. “YOUR W-WOOOooOORDS MAKE N-N-N-NO-NO SENSE S-S-SC-S-S-SC-SCIENTIST!”

Wilson’s eyes widen. “You. You CAN talk!”

“Focus.”

“Right, right, sorry.”

“M-Mister Wilson? M-Miss Wi-illow? What’s going o* _hic_ *on?” Webber called out.

“Your _friend_ came by for a visit Webber.” Willow called back, keeping her eyes on the robot, ready to jam her spear in its head.

Webber gasped. “Miss Snonagawompkins?!”

… Both adults and robot slowly turned their heads to look at Webber.

“… What?”

Wilson shook his head, turning back to the robot. “Well, whatever the reason you’re doing here, you’re not welcomed here.”

“I-I-IN-INCORECT SCIENTIST!” The robot screamed, pointing at Webber. “THE SP-SP-SP-SPIIiiiIIIIiiiiDER CHI-CHILD SAID Y* _ZRT_ *YOU WOULD FIX ME!”

Wilson blinked. “Webber said… what?”

“I REQUIRE-ER-ER-ER MAAAAaaaaAAAAAINTEN-TEN-TENANnnnnNCE! THE SPIDER CHiiiiIIIIiiiiLD SAID YOU CAN F-F-F-FIX ANYTH-ANYTH-ANYTH-ANYTH-ANY- _GET ME OUT OOOF THE **RAIN!**_ ” The robot screamed. It was then that Wilson noticed the sparks building up around the robot. Willow had seen it too, along with hearing a rumbling thunder above, turning around and lunging at Wilson.

“Look out!” She tackled him to the ground just as lightning shot down from the sky, striking where the pair once stood. There was a bright flash and a thundering **_BOOM_** that shook the sky (and made Webber scream out in fear). Willow looked up when the moment had passed, looking back at the robot.

Steam and tiny sparks covered its body as it slowly sat up, crawling towards the discarded umbrella that had been tossed aside. Once the umbrella was safely in its grip again, it turned to look at them with a deep frown.

“SY-SY-SYSTEM ARE MALFUNCTIONED. O-O-O-OVERLOAD IS NOT POOooooOOSIBLE NOW… I REQUIRE THE SCIENTIST’S H- _ASSISTANCE_ TO F-F-FUNCTION PROPERLY A* _Krrr_ *AGAIN.”

Willow glared at the robot. “And why should he help you?! You stole from us! You attacked Webber! Not to mention just moments ago you tried to steal from us again! You’re not very trustworthy and I don’t think fixing you would be a good option! Besides, Wilson wouldn’t want to help fix something if it just means it’s going to come back to bite us! _Right_ , Wilson.” Willow waited for the scientist… “ ** _RIGHT_** , Wilson.” She waited again… “Ugh! Wilson!” She turned her head to Wilson, full on ready to give him a piece of her mind… when she noticed the deep pain look on his face.

“… Wilson?”

)*(

These humans were confusing.

One moment the screaming angry one was yelling such nonsense and accusations at them, and then the next they were concerned for their fallen scientist. So much that they ignored them in favor of the scientist when he required assistance to stand.

Such insolence! To ignore the superior of machine in need of repairs for a weakling fleshing! This was a high insult!

“Do you think M-Mister Wilson will be alright?” They blinked, suddenly realizing that they were not alone. The spider child looked at them expectantly. Right. They were asked a question.

“I D-D-D-DO NOT CARE FFFFoooOOOR THE SCIENTIST’S W-W-WELL BEING. I ONLY CA* _Krr_ *AME FOR THE REPAIRS W-WHICH YOU PR-R-R-ROMISED ME.”

“I did?” The spider child blinked, tilting its head.

“YOU DID.”

The spider child scratched its head, looking at them confused. “… Nnnoooo, I don’t th* _hic_ *ink I promised y-you that.”

“YOU DID. YOU STA* _zzzz_ *ATED THAT THE SCIENTIST WAAAaaaAASSS GOOD WITH REPAIRS. I REQUIRE R-R-REPAIRS.”

“Yeah. B-but. I didn’t pr-promise you that.”

“CLEARLY. YOUR S-S-S-SCIENTIST SEEMS TO BE I-I-I-I-IN NO CONDITION FO-FO-FO-FO-FOR GIVING REPAaaaAAAIRS. OTHERWISE, HE WO-WO-WO-WOULD REPAIR YoooOOOOUR VOICE BOX.”

“Huh?”

“YOU SPEECH I-I-I-IS IMPAIRED. YOU DO NNNnnnoooOOOOT SPEAK N-N-NO-NORMALLY WHEN YO-YO-YOU T-T-TALK.”

“Oh. No. * _Sniff_ * That’s just because I* _hic_ *I’ve been crying.” The spider child rubbed one of its bigger eyes.

“WHY?”

The spider child looked at the ground. “… I’ve been grounded.” They muttered quietly.

“ILLOGICAL. IF YOU WERE T-T-TO BE GR-GR-GR-GROUNDED, THEY W-W-W-WOULD HAVE BURIED YOOOooooOOOU IN THE GROUND.”

“That’s not what grounded means.” A voice cut into their conversation, and the angry yelling fleshy one stepped out of the tent. “And you’re still not welcomed here.” They glared at them before turning to address the spider child. “Webber do you have any spider glands in your chest?”

“Yes. B-But aren’t th* _hic_ *they usually stored in M-Mister Wilson’s chest?”

“Usually. But it turns out, Wilson’s been using all his spider glands.” The angry one sighed, going over to what assumed to be the spider child’s tent.

“Is Mi-Mister Wilson alri* _hic_ *ight?”

The angry one paused a bit at the spider child’s chest. “… No. No he is not alright Webber.” The angry one took out a gland. “As it turns out, Wilson’s been hiding a very bad owwie in his back.”

“Oh no!”

“Oh yes.” The angry one stood back up, looking at them with a sharp glare. “And he’s not going to repair you.”

“THE SP-SP-SPIDER CHILD SAID—”

“He said that he didn’t promise you anything! He just said Wilson was good with fixing things! But even that’s a lie!” The angry stormed by, shoving them as they went.

“I REFUSE T-T-T-TO LEAVE TILL THE SSSsssssSSSSSCIENTST RE* _rrr_ *PAIRS MY MALFUNCTION!”

“You’re not even welcomed here and you’re not getting those repairs! So _get out of our base!_ ” The angry one screamed to them before disappearing back inside the tent.

“… RUDE.”

“She u-usually a lot ni* _hic_ *icer.”

)*(

“Why are you always like this?” Willow muttered, wiping off the last bit of blood off her hands on her skirt. “You’re always making sure that we’re okay and in top form. Yet you never take care of yourself.” She looked at Wilson’s prone form. “For a scientist, you’re an absolute _idiot_.” She sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“You gave Webber a scare, you know. I don’t think he’ll be having any easy sleeping for a while now… damn it Wilson. If you only just told us that you had something lodged in your back, we wouldn’t have to deal with this drama.” Willow glanced at the said thing.

A small Hound’s tooth covered with Wilson’s blood.

“I’m surprised you had this stuck in your back for such a long time. Even more surprising how much you put up with it during the whole time.” She flicked the tooth away. “I’m still mad at you though. Don’t start thinking that I’ve forgiven you just yet…” She looked at Wilson, watching his chest raise and fall with each shaky breath.

“… you’re adorkable.” Willow sighed, rubbing her knuckles against his cheek for a brief moment before standing and leaving the tent.

)*(

The last few days had been… what was the word Mister Wilson used? Oh right! Hectic!

It had been really hectic over the last few days. Mister Wilson was trapped in his tent because Miss Willow wouldn’t let him out (something about letting his back rest and recover from blood lost), Miss Willow was still a little grumpy but she let him out from being grounded, and the monster (er _robot_ ) still hung around the base. Miss Willow really didn’t like that one bit.

The robot stuck around even after Miss Willow threatened to burn them and take them apart piece by piece (scary!) and throw all the pieces in the ocean. The robot would then start yelling at her with their own death threats and shouts of violence. They would scream and yell at each other for hours, which made Webber a little bit nervous being around them.

“Are they still screaming at each other?” Mister Wilson asked as Webber stepped inside his tent carrying Chester.

“Uh huh. Miss Willow even took out her lighter and shoved it in the robot’s face.”

Mister Wilson sighed and shook his head, sitting up slowly as Webber sat down next to him. “What am I going to do with those two?”

“Maybe you can fix Mr. Robot? It says that it won’t leave until you repair them.”

“If only it were that easy.” Mister Wilson grumbled. “But to do that I’ll need parts and tools. But I’m not sure if I have the right tools or even have the right parts… and I’m sure Willow wouldn’t want me to be near our robotic friend anyway.”

“She told Mr. Robot that if they went anywhere near me or you, she’ll throw them to the moon!” Webber threw their hands up high, making Mister Wilson laugh a bit.

“Oh I highly doubt she could do that. But I’m not tempted to try her.” Mister Wilson rubbed Webber's head, tousling his short black fur on top of his head. “I hope she hasn’t been too rough with you out there Webber.”

“It’s fine.” Webber smiled, fixing his fur. “She mostly just keeps me on garden duty. Or keep an eye on Mr. Robot while she’s out. Oh!” Webber blinked, remembering something. “I just remembered something!”

“What is it?”

“The rains been letting up! It hasn’t rained as much over the last couple of days now!”

Mister Wilson perked up. “Really? That’s great to hear! Spring must be ending soon then.” He turned around, grabbing something from one of the clutter piles. “That means we’ll have to move to our summer base as soon as the weather becomes stable. We should have enough supplies to make it there without needing to worry about food. Though we might have to worry about a few things other than food. Like extra wood supplies.”

Webber leaned his head against Chester as Mister Wilson started rambling on and on about what they would need to head out to their summer base. “Do you think Miss Willow will be happy to know that spring is almost over?”

“Hm?” Mister Wilson looked up from a piece of paper. “What was that?”

“I said, do you think Miss Willow will be in a better mood when the rain goes away? She’s been kinda grumpy the whole time during spring because of the rain.”

“She hasn’t been grumpy Webber. She’s been…” Mister Wilson started before pausing. “… Well… hmm… I… okay she has been a little ill-tempered over this spring… though come to think of it, she’s always been a little crabby when spring rolls around.” Mister Wilson scratched his face. “Oh dear science how did I not see this before?”

“How did you not notice that before?” Webber asked, but Mister Wilson shrugged.

“I guess I’ve always been so busy with the science machine that I never noticed before. Maybe Willow was right. Maybe I do need to stop getting so focused in my work.” Mister Wilson sighed, rubbing his chin. “… Webber, do you have a razor on you?”

“Inside Chester.” Webber held up the small being. Mister Wilson opened Chester’s mouth, reaching inside and rummaging around before pulling out a razor.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” Webber smiled as Mister Wilson set to work cutting off his beard. “Wait. Don’t you have your own razor Mister Wilson?”

“I did. But it broke.” Mister Wilson answered, shaving one side of his face. “Willow had to use it tooooooooooooooo—” Mister Wilson froze, stopping in mid shave and look at Webber. “—oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo—”

Webber blinked, tilting his head a bit.

“—ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cut wood! Yes! Exactly! She has a habit… fooor woodcarving! Yes! So she needed my razor so I lent it to her! It’s honestly a bit of a waste for razors to go through, but it’s nice to help a friend out, right?”

“Right!” Webber cheered. “… Wait, if Miss Willow likes to do woodcarving, why haven’t we seen any of her work?”

“She likes to burn them after she’s done.”

“Oh.”

)*(

They hated this arrangement.

They hated everything about this place.

They hated the loud angry one who threatened to burn them on multiple occasions.

Especially the loud angry one.

If these organics would only just listen to them and repair the damages, they would have left them _ages_ ago. But no. The angry one refused to let the scientist repair them or let them near the scientist when they demanded to see them. The angry one kept them away with their stupid small brethren.

Betrayal by their own kind.

Their sensors detected movement, looking up from the small flame by their feet.

Ah. It was the spider child.

“S-S-SP-SPIDER CHILD.”

“Hi Mr. Robot!” The spider child greeted, sitting across from them. They frowned at the fire. “Your fires getting low.”

“I’M A-A-A-AWARE.” They huffed as the spider child took out a log from the sentient external storage unit and added it to the fire.

“You should be more careful Mr. Robot. Staying too long in the dark is really scary and dangerous.”

“YOUR INF-F-F-FROMATION IS NOOoooooOOOT NEEDED SPIDER CHILD. I* _VrrR_ *I ALREADY KN-NN-N-N-NOW ABOUT THE DANGERS OOoooOOF THE DARK.”

The spider child hummed, rubbing the sentient storage unit. “I guess.”

They sat there in silence. Like they always did when the spider child went quiet and they had nothing else to say. They were a little uncertain what made this spider child come visit them every night over the last couple of days. The spider child had claimed it was because they wanted to be sure they weren’t lonely, but that was illogical. They did not get lonely. They did not need the company of the spider child.

The angry one must have sent the spider child to spy on them. Quite ironic seeing as the angry one wanted them to stay away from the spider child and scientist. Yet the angry one sends them to them with no qualms.

“What’s going to happen when lightning strikes you again when you’re healed?” They blinked, looking up at the spider child.

“WHAT?”

“When the lightning strikes you again. When you’re healed.” The spider child hugged their legs, looking at them expectantly. “What’s gonna happen?”

“SY-SY-SYSTEM OVERLOAD.”

The spider child blinked. “System… overload?”

“YES.” They sat back, keeping within the umbrella’s protective cover range. “WHEN OUR SYST-T-T-TEM IS OVERLOADED WITH POOOooooOOWER, WE ACHIEVE MmmmMMMmmMMANY GREAT THINGS! BUT, SYSTEM IS MALF-F-FUNCTIONED, AND CANNOT PREFORM S-S-S-SUCH DUTIES.”

“And that’s why you need Mister Wilson’s help!”

“CORRECT.” They nodded. They sat silently for a moment staring at the fire before looking back at the spider child. “DO YOU H-H-H-HAVE ANYTHING TO CON-CON-CON-CONSUME?”

“Oh yeah! Hold on.” The spider child took off their bag, rummaging through it before pulling out some monster meat. “Sorry. I only have monster meat on me.”

They stared at the meat held out to them. They had tasted monster meat before. Cooked and uncooked. Both results were unfavorable. “IT’S ACCEPTABLE.” They huffed, taking the meat.

“Are you sure? I could sneak back to the base and grab something—”

“MEAT IS AC-AC-AC-ACCEPTABLE!” They repeated, cooking the meat in the flames.

“Oh… okay.” The spider child mumbled, cooking their own meat. The spider child was quiet again… for a while. “If you’re a robot, shouldn’t be you only be able to eat robot stuff?”

“ELABORATE.”

“Well, Mister Wilson once told me that robots run on energy and fuel, like electricity and oil. And that they don’t eat and sleep like everyone else.” The spider child explained, biting onto their cooked monster meat. “But you eat _and_ sleep like a normal person.”

“INC-C-C-C-CORRECT! I AM ABOOOoooooooooOOOOVVVVE A NORMAL PERSON! I AM SUPI-PI-PI-PIRIOR!” They slammed their fist against their chest, making a loud **_CLANK_** ing noise that echoed in the night.

“Then why do you eat and sleep?”

“…” They grabbed their cooked monster meat and stuffed into their mouth.

)*(

Spring came and then it was gone. Now it summer, which meant hot, hot, **_HOT._**

The sun was shining and the heat was picking up, and best of all, it meant that there was no more _rain_ to deal with.

“Isn’t this a beautiful day out today?! The sun is shining! The heat is picking up! Nothing’s wet! Annnnnnnd you two are suffering through heat stroke.” Willow sighed as she looked down at the pair.

Webber and Wilson were flat on their faces, completely unmoving.

“Oh come on you guys! We’ve only been walking for a day! If this keeps up we’ll never reach the summer base!”

“ _Easy… for you… to say…_ ” Wilson wheezed, lifting his head up slightly. “ _You… don’t… suffer… heat stroke… like… we do…_ ”

“ _C-can I… have some… waaaater?_ ” Webber lifted his hand up weakly before it fell to the ground.

Willow groaned, taking off her bag. “Seriously guys?! You two wanted to make it to the base after spring passed! It’s not my fault you wanted to wait out the rain!” She handed them each a bottle of Electric Milk. “And we would have been there by now if **_SOMEONE WASN’T TAILGATING US!_** ”

“… YOU’R-RE TALKING A-A-A-A-ABOUT ME, ArrRRRRrrrEN’T YOU?”

Willow shot a glare at the robot, who instantly kept following them the morning that they left the spring base (but thankfully at a distance). “Stop following us you creep!”

“NEGATORY! I D-D-D-D-DEMAND THAT YOU RELINQUISH YO-YO-YO-YOUR SCIENTIST!”

“You come one step close to him and you’re good as dead!”

“I’m honestly surprised he’s still following us.” Wilson remarked, sipping on his drink. “With those injuries of his, I was sure he wouldn’t be able to keep up.”

“Wilson, please, we talked about this. Stop worrying over the robot. They’re going to make your brain hurt.”

“Willow, if you would just let me fix them—”

“No.”

“Willow.”

“No.”

“Willow.”

“No.”

“Willow!”

“ _No!_ ”

“Why won’t you let Mister Wilson fix Mr. Robot, Miss Willow?”

“Because I don’t trust it! First it steals from us, attacks you, and keeps screaming at us when it talks to us!”

“Y-Y-Y-YOU SCREAM AsssssSSSSS WELL!”

“Not like you tin can!”

Wilson rolled his eyes, standing up and then assisting Webber up on his feet as well. “Clearly you don’t have a very strong trust of this being I see.”

“Clearly.” Willow huffed, grabbing Wilson’s arm and pulled him along (despite his small protests). “Now come on! The more we linger here, the grumpier that stupid Antlion is going to get if we don’t feed it.”

)*(

The robot kept following them. Even as they made it to the summer base.

It kept following Wilson around, demanding (loudly) that Wilson fix it. Though it never got _too_ close to Wilson as Willow made sure to stay by his side and shoot glares at it. It never stopped it from following them (or trying to steal their food as Willow noted how their food supply wasn’t filled up as it should be).

“Why does it keep following us?!” Willow growled one night around the fire. “We made it clear that you’re not repairing it! Yet it doesn’t seem to get the memo!”

“They’re clearly stubborn, I’ll give them that.” Wilson hummed, putting down the miner hat he had just crafted and looked at the small fire in the distance. “Seems our robot tag along just won’t quit until he gets those repairs from me.”

“But Miss Willow won’t let you~.” Webber smiled in a singsong tone, biting down on his fish.

Wilson chuckled a bit. “No. No she won’t. And I’m scared to go against her wishes.”

“As you should be.” Willow smiled, crossing her arms. “Though I wished Mr. Walking Trashcan got the idea and left us alone already.”

“WX-78.”

Both adults blinked, turning their heads to Webber.

“What?”

“WX-78.” Webber repeated, finishing his meal. “He told me his name, um, _designation_ is WX-78.”

“Wait. Told you?! Webber have you been near that thing?!” Willow pointed to where the robot’s, now known as WX-78, little fire was burning.

Webber flinched, looking away. “… Mmmmmmmmaaaaaybeee?”

“ _Webber!_ ”

“Ah! Okay! Okay yes! I’ve been visiting WX-78 at night when you guys are sleeping!” Webber blurted out, shocking both adults with the news. “But he’s not bad!”

“Webber! I can’t believe you!” Willow stood up (feeling shocked and betrayed). “You’ve been in cahoots with that thing?!”

“Willow, please. I’m sure he had a reason.” Wilson placed a hand on her arm, trying to get her to sit back down.

“He was hungry! And. And he’s really not that bad!” Webber shrunk under the increasing glare, curling in on himself.

“It could be faking it! Webber how could be so stupid?! It’s only trying to gain your trust and then WHAM! Squishes you flat! And it’ll be all _your_ fault and no one else to blame here!”

“Willow stop! You’re hurting his feelings!” Wilson tried to lead Willow away, seeing the tears falling from Webber’s eyes.

“Oh it’s not just his feelings that’s going to get hurt!” Willow yanked her arm out of Wilson’s grip, pointing at the arachnid child with an accusing finger. “This is full out mutiny! Literal backstabbing! I can’t believe you would do that behind our backs! I thought you were better than that Webber!”

“H-he’s really n-not that bad.” Webber sniffed, rubbing his tear soaked eyes.

“I DON’T CARE! This is the last straw for you! You—!”

_CLUNK_

Everyone froze at the sound, and an umbrella shot out from the dark, blocking Willow from the crying Webber.

“TH-TH-THAT’S ENOUGH!” Everyone turned their heads, seeing WX-78 standing there glaring at Willow. “CEASE YOUR YE-YELLING AT THE S-S-SPIRDER CHIIiiiiIILD LOUD ONE!”

“What did you call me?!” Willow yelled, taking out her lighter.

“I CALLED Y-Y-YOU THE LOUD ONE LOOOOooooOOOOUD ONE!” WX-78 screamed back.

“You’re the one who’s being so loud!”

“Willow please let’s all just calmly talk about this!” Wilson spoke up, opening his arms for Webber to dive in and bury his face against the scientist’s chest. “This is getting out of hand!”

“It sure is! Webber’s turned traitor on us keeping this thing alive!”

“Willow that’s not—”

“I AM N-N-N-N-NOT A **_THING_**! I AM WX-X-X-X-X-78! RULER OF THIS WWwwwwwWWWOOOORLD! AND YOU WILL FOLLOW MY D-DD-D-DEMANDS!”

“Now hang on—”

“We’re not following anything! You’re nothing but bad news!”

“Guys.”

“YOU FLESH B-BA-B-BAGS ARE NOTHING BUT BAD NNNNNeeeeEEWS!”

“Guys.”

“Well you’re even worse news!”

“Guys!”

“YOU AR-AR-ARE NOTHING BUT A LO* _Krrr-krkr_ *OUD SNIVELING—”

“Walking trashcan!”

“ _Guys!_ ”

“—WA-WASTE OF SPACE WITH THE I-I-I-I-IQ OF A—”

“Rust bucket!”

“ ** _ENOUGH!_** ” Wilson shouted, loud enough that his voice echoed in the distance and made Willow and WX-78 freeze. “ **The _both_ of you!** You’re making Webber upset and this is getting no one nowhere!” Wilson picked up Webber, holding him against his chest as the child continued to cry against him.

He turned his eyes on Willow (who flinched when their eyes made contact). “Willow I am _very_ disappointed in you! Yelling at a child and getting angry is **not** the way to deal with things. No!” Wilson stopped her before she could speak. “I don’t want to hear anything from you! You’ve been out of control with your temper lately and I’m **_sick. Of. It!_** If you’re angry fine! But don’t take it out on Webber!”

He then turned his eyes on the robot. “And **_you_**.” The robot seemed to tense at the venom in Wilson’s voice. “I am _tired_ of everything you’ve done since we’ve found you. I’m tired of you stealing from us. Tired of you demanding from us. _Dim damn tired that this whole problem could have just been easily solved if you had only asked nicely in the first place and not cause this entire mess!_ ”

Wilson took in a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before sighing.

“I’ll fix you.”

“What?! Wil—”

“Ap!” Wilson held up a finger, stopping Willow from speaking. “I’ll fix you… but you have to leave once your repairs are done.” He glared at the robot, daring him to do anything. “Is that clear?”

“… CR-CR-CRYSTAL.”

“Good! Now, I’m putting Webber to bed. It’s been a long day and this drama isn’t helping anyone out.” Wilson stepped over to his tent. “Oh, and one more thing.” Wilson paused at the open flap. “If either of you still want to scream and shout at each other, **_please_** , kindly take it somewhere that’s not within hearing range and _leave us **out of it**_.” With that, he entered his tent, leaving a stunned Willow and an equally stunned (and a little nervous) WX-78.

“… YO-YO-YO-YOUR SCIENTIST IS QUITE FR-FR-FRRRRIIIiiiiiITENING WHEN HE IS AN-ANGRY.”

“ ** _QUIET!_** ”

Willow and WX-78 jumped, dashing off into the darkness.

)*(

Night was… restless. To say the least.

Wilson stared up at the tents fabric ceiling, having gotten no sleep last night. Webber on the other hand (after being reassured by Wilson many times that he wasn’t in trouble and that he was not mad at him) was fast asleep against him, gripping tightly to his vest like a teddy bear and refusing to let go.

Wilson couldn’t be mad at such a sweet boy (even if this whole trouble started because of him). Webber was still just a child after all and he didn’t know any better. He was only doing what he thought was the right thing. Wilson would have probably done the same thing in his shoes (if Webber ever wore shoes).

But it wasn’t the thought of what Webber did that kept him up last night. It was the thoughts of his own actions that did.

Wilson wasn’t sure what made him lose his temper like that (okay, well, he did, but still) and lash out on those two (one of them _did_ kind of deserve it though). He was better than that! He shouldn’t have had to yell at them to get them to listen! (But they were kind of being loud and scaring Webber as well.) For science sake, he yelled at Willow! He _never_ did that! (Not like how he yelled at her last night. He’d normally yelled at her in fear and distraught over what she did to his hair, and it was mostly out of fear than anger.)

And WX-78… ho boy. He didn’t know the robot too well, but he still remembered the beat down he suffered from the robot the first time they met. (Cracked ribs. Not a good memory to have.) He wasn’t sure how the robot felt towards him now, but it probably wasn’t good. He more than likely made a new enemy, and he didn’t have very many enemies (besides Maxwell of course).

But Willow? Willow was sure to be angry with him now! There was no telling what she’ll do after that little scene he pulled last night. (Well… if she did pull anything, her focus would be turned on him instead of Webber now.)

Wilson sat up slowly, leaning against his elbows. He needed to make sure that everything was alright. Wilson took off his vest (seeing as Webber still clung to it and he didn’t want to wake the boy) and quietly snuck out from his tent.

It shouldn’t have hurt as much when he stepped out and saw the base was empty. (It shouldn’t have.)

But there was no one there when he stepped out. No Willow. No WX-78. Just him and the bright hot sun in the sky. Wilson sighed, shaking his head, thinking that Willow made good on her threat to leave…

… Till he heard voices in the distance.

Looking out beyond the base, Wilson’s eyes widened, spotting WX-78 and Willow in the distance. No doubt yelling at each other again. Wilson wasn’t aware that his feet were moving, not even registering that he was getting closer to the pair till he was a foot away from them.

“—No! I mean like really! He **_never_** yelled at me like that before! He’s normally such a quiet guy and geeky, but really nice! Really nice! I always thought he was too nerdy to lose his temper.” Willow spoke, not realizing that Wilson stood behind her. “But WOW! Sure taught me something!”

“HMM.” WX-78 hummed, looking more at the dying fire than Willow.

“I guess everyone was right when they say it’s the quit ones you’ve got to look out for. Otherwise they might explode and snap at you.”

“Yes, well, I think it’s more along the lines that they don’t tend to try to let their emotions get the better of them.” Wilson spoke up, startling Willow and surprising WX-78.

“Wilson!” Willow gasped, patting her chest. “Bloody! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry.” Wilson rubbed the back of his neck. “I really didn’t mean to do that…” He stood there awkwardly for a moment, trying to find the words he needed to say. “Look I… I’m sorry about last night.”

“Whoa what?” Willow stood up, looking at Wilson in surprise. “You’re sorry? _You’re_ sorry? Wilson, I’m the one who should be sorry not you!”

“But I—”

“Ack! Nope!” Willow placed her hand on his mouth, stopping him from speaking. “Look, you were right. And, yeah, I kind of got out of hand. A lot lately. And well…” She rubbed her arm. “I guess I was in the wrong and sort of needed that last night. So… yeah.” She smiled at him, prompting a small smile out of Wilson as well. “But don’t ever do that again or I’ll burn your hair off!” She jammed her finger against his chest.

Wilson stared at her a moment before scoffing, breaking out into a full blown laugh. “Noted!” He chuckled, wiping his eyes.

“AHEM!”

Wilson stopped laughing, looking over at the disgruntled WX-78.

“AR-AR-ARE YOU GOOOoooooOOING TO RE-RE* _zzzzz_ *EPAIR ME NOW? YOUR A-A-A-A-AFFECTION SICKENS MMMMmmmEEEEE!”

Wilson stared at him for a moment before looking at Willow.

Willow could only shrug. “Yeah, he’s kind of a jerk.”

)*(

It took a lot of gears, time, and a whole lot of all nighters, but the scientist managed to pull it off and repaired WX-78.

WX-78 flexed their hand, testing the mobility. All motors seemed to function normally, and everything else checked out as well. The scientist did an exceptional job with his work. Speaking of the scientist.

WX-78 gazed over where the scientist was sleeping by the fire. Such weakling had powered down the moment he had announced that he had finished the repairs. They were… impressed that such weak fleshling had managed to fix them. Even managing to fix their optics and the large holes in their torso.

It was really more of the fire woman’s doing. She was the one who went out and found the necessary items needed to fix them. The fire woman in question was also sleeping by the fire. Or, _in_ the fire was more accurate. It was still a surprise how the most destructive element ever had no effect on the fleshling female. _Intriguing._

“HOW IS FIRE NOT DAMAGING HER?”

“I don’t know. I keep asking her that, but she doesn’t know either.” WX-78 looked down at their side. The spider child (the only tolerable being in this group) was playing with the sentient external storage unit front stumps. “Mister Wilson would know, but he says he’ll never experiment on anyone.”

“WHY NOT?”

“He said it’s because that would be mean and cruel, and Mister Wilson’s super nice!” The spider child smiled up at them. “Just like you!”

“INCORRECT! I AM NOT NICE! I AM ALL POWERFUL AND MERCILESS!”

The spider child tilted their head at them, humming a bit before shaking their head. “Nope. I think you’re nice.”

“DELETE THAT FROM YOUR THINKING BANKS THIS INSTANTLY THEN!”

The spider child laughed, leaning against them. “Well, I guess if you say so. But I still think you’re nice. Even if you say otherwise.” They opened their mouth, ready to tell the spider child how wrong they were, but stopped as the spider child yawned.

“YOU’RE TIRED.”

“Mm-hm.” The spider child nodded, rubbing its face.

“POWER DOWN. I’VE BEEN ASSIGNED WATCH TONIGHT.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help to keep watch?” The spider child blinked at them sleepily.

“POSSITIVE. YOUR LOW ENERGY WILL ONLY HINDER MY DUTY.”

“You sure?”

“SURE.”

“Doubly positive?”

“QUADRUPLE.”

The spider child stared at them, yawning again, then nodded and leaned their head against them. (Making them tense and still.) “okay. nighty night.”

They waited. Waiting for the spider child’s breathing to ease into a steady rhythm before relaxing. They should be used to the spider child sleeping against them now, but they found themselves still tensing each time the arachnid child laid against them.

These fleshlings were confusing. First they did not like them, then they became intolerant then tolerant, and after that… they were more… accepting.

They did not like this acceptance. They were a ruthless ruler meant to concur and rule everything! Just because these stupid fleshlings showed them kindness does not mean they would be any less harsh to them when the time was right and all their guards were down!

…

They blinked.

Looking at each organic carefully.

They all were sleeping away, with no defenses or guards against them.

_All their guards were down._

Their optics narrowed.

**_All their guards were down._ **

They smiled, moving the spider child off them and headed towards the chests. These foolish organics! Putting their foolish trust on them and believing that they would spare their lives in the end! HA! Once they were finished with these humans, the next goal will be to find that tall human and demand their power! It wasn’t meant for such weak fleshed human, and they will not stand by to be their play thing.

WX-78 smiled, taking an ax out from the chest. Sharp. Heavy. _Dangerous_. It was the perfect weapon for destruction. But now came the real question. Who would die first?

They looked back at their soon to be victims, estimating which would die first by their hands. The scientist was closet to them, wide open for them to chop their head off their neck… no. The scientist was useful in the repairs. They decided that he’ll die last. Ah, but that left the fire woman and the spider child.

They did hate the fire woman more than the scientist and spider child combined, and she did give them a lot of grief when they met. Maybe they could chop her up and throw her parts into the sea and see how she would like it?

… No. The fire was protecting her. She needed to be weakened first before being finished off. Plus, she was quite protective of the scientist and spider child. She would not like it if either of them were hurt if she were to wake up suddenly and try to defend them.

So that left…

_The spider child._

**_P E R F E C T._ **

They smiled, standing up and making their way over to the defenseless child. This was perfect! They could finally killed the spider child after failing to do so the first time! The spider was lucky once, but now. Now they can finally strike them down!

They stood before the arachnid, lifting the ax high above them, ready to bring it down upon the spider child’s head…

…

…

…

…

…

Ready to bring it down on the spider child’s head…

…

…

…

…

Ready to… bring it down…

…

…

… On their head…

…

… Any time now…

…

…

…

…

“… this should not be this difficult…”

)*(

Willow felt someone shaking her, rousing her from her sleep.

“Willow. Willow! Wake up!”

Willow groaned, rolling over. “Five more minutes Wilson… I’m having a good dream.”

“Willow, WX-78’s gone!”

“Oh goody.” Willow yawned. “At least that tin can listened and scooted…”

“He stole from us again!”

Willow’s eyes shot open. “Wait, _what?!_ ” She sat up from the ashes of the campfire, looking around. Nothing seemed to be out of place, all the chests were upright at least, but the looks on Wilson’s and Webber’s face told her otherwise. “Bloody burns!” Willow slammed her fist on the ground. “I knew he couldn’t be trusted! What did he take this time?! Food?! Gears?! All our supplies?!”

Wilson shook his head. “… All our food is still in the ice box. Parts and gears are still in every chest their stored in. Every valuable item that we own are still where we put them.”

Willow slowly frowned, looking between the two with confusion. “… Okay. Sooo, he didn’t take anything then.”

Wilson shook his head again. “Not… exactly.” He looked at Webber, placing a hand on the young child’s shoulder. It was then that Willow noticed a tear stains on his face.

“Webber? Webber what’s wrong?” She scooted closer, placing her hands on Webber’s face and brushing away the falling tears. “Webs, what’s the matter?”

Webber said nothing for a moment before holding up folded a sheet of papyrus. Willow looked at it a moment before looking at Wilson. His face was neutral, nodding his head towards the paper. She took the papyrus, opening it up and looked down on the single message written on it.

**_I’m sorry…_ **

“He to-ook Ch-Chester.” Webber sniffled as Willow lower the papyrus in shook. “He* _Hic_ *e t-took out all th-the stuff I h* _Hic_ *had in him… an-nd he to* _Hic_ *ook Chester.” Webber’s eyes water with tears as Willow pulled him into a hug. “I-I-I thought h* _Hic_ *he was my f-fr-fr-friend.”

“Oh Webber. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Willow rubbed his back as he cried, silently promising to set that robot on fire if she ever saw them again for hurting Webber in the worst possible way.


	4. Wolfgang

_Log date: Day XXX_

_It’s been some time since our thieving friend WX-78 left our base along with Chester. I wish I could say things have been going okay here but… Well, it’s not._

_Willow certainly hasn’t let anyone forget about how much our robotic friend was going to burn if she ever sees them again and Webber… Oh geez. The poor boy is_ still _broken hearted about the fact that WX stole Chester. Not that I would blame him._

_Chester was like a faithful companion and trusted friend to Webber. He would spend hours on hours talking to that furry chest or run around with Chester following like regular walks or a substitute game of tag. Now a days, poor Webber just usually sits around moping or crying his little heart out. Doesn’t skip out on his jobs thank goodness, but it’s really depressing to seeing him like this._

_Willow and I have tried to cheer him up on survival occasions, and results have been… variant. Sometimes we managed to succeed to make him smile, other times not so much. How I wish I hadn’t fixed that robot, then we won’t have to deal with this whole mess. (And Webber wouldn’t have to be so sad…) But there’s a lot of things I wished never happened._

_A lot…_

_Anyway, preparations for winter have been steady. Since nothing was stolen… aside from Chester, surviving winter should be simple enough. We have enough food to get us through till spoilage or until we run low enough to be forced to forage. Though that is not my main concern for this winter. No. If my studies are correct (and when are they not?), this winter promises to be very cold._

_Colder than our other experienced winters. Maxwell must be stepping up his game a little. ( **HATE THAT GUY** ) And if that’s true, then I’m very concerned for the well being of-_

“Willow are you reading my journal again?!” Willow blinked sluggishly as the journal was snatched out from her grip, looking up at a perturbed Wilson.

“Oh hey Will. When did… you get here?” Willow asked slowly, sniffing and rubbing her nose against the blanket.

“Willow that’s unsanitary.” Wilson groaned, clutching his journal close to his chest. “And what are you doing out of your tent? I told you to wait in there till I got back!”

“But it was _boooorrrrring!_ It’s no fun when you’re not here!” Willow whined.

“Willow, you’re risking your health if you continue to do stuff like this!” Wilson kneeled in front of her, feeling her forehead. He tsked, shaking his head in disapproval. “Your fever’s gone up. Get back inside your tent Willow, I’ll cook up something for you to help with the fever.”

“ _Nooooo._ Don’t leave meeee!” Willow latched onto Wilson’s leg as he stood up, clinging onto it.

“Willow this is really not necessary!” Wilson tried to pry her off as gently as he could, but the fire starter would simply not let go. “I’m not your bear Willow! I’ll only be gone just a moment.”

“Nononononononononononononononononononono _NO!_ ” Wilson sighed, turning his head to look over his shoulder.

“Webber? Webber?” The spider child, sitting next to the fire and poking it with a stick, looked up. “Could you throw in some monster meat, frog legs, and a couple of carrots in the crockpot? I’m a bit… occupied at the moment.”

Webber didn’t say anything for a moment before nodding and getting up. “Thank you!” Wilson smiled, turning his focus back on Willow. “Willow, _please_. Let go of my leg.”

“ **No!** ”

)*(

Wilson wasn’t sure who was more childish.

Willow or Webber.

While Webber was arguably younger and technically a child himself, Willow acted more like a child on temper tantrum than her real age when she was down with the flu.

Honestly, she was a grown woman yet she needed nearly twenty-four hours of care and treatment. Wilson was always scared to leave her alone because that woman would wander away or get herself into trouble. And all the while she would whine, moan, cry, and act like a young child than be reasonable and let Wilson help her. And clingy. Very, very clingy.

For reasons unknown, Willow got very clingy to every personal object she was deeply attached to. A.k.a. Bernie, her lighter, occasionally Wilson, Webber (if he ever got close enough to grabbing range), fire pits, anything fire related, and the Life Giving Amulet Wilson gave her back in fall. (He was surprised she still had that. He was certain that she had used it when she went into the marsh to gather blue mushrooms.)

And for someone down with the flu, Willow certainly wasn’t frail. Her grip surely spoke for her. (And the small bruising on his legs.) Luckily, with persuasion (bribing) she relented her death grip.

“Feeling a bit better now?” Wilson asked, poking the fire with his stick. Willow sat across from him, snuggled deep in her cave of every blanket they had in the base. She so buried in deep that only the top portion of her face showed, along with a half-buried Bernie. She nodded, snuggling deeper into the pit of Beefalo skins and spider webbing.

“Good. At least that’s some good news.” Wilson hummed, throwing the stick in the fire. “… Willow. Stay on your side.”

“ _Aaaaaawwwwwwww!_ But you look so cold!”

“Willow, I appreciate that you’re concerned for me, but I must remind you that I have this.” Wilson pointed to his beard. “Along with this jacket and added thermal stone to keep me warm. You on the other hand…” Wilson trailed off.

He didn’t need to clarify anything. They both knew Willow was weak to the cold. It was her main big weakness (aside from the rain of course). Wilson had taken all precautions at winter in keeping Willow warm, less he would have to deal with her health and mental stability.

But of course it wasn’t a solid 100% plan.

Deerclops and added Hound attack helped see to _that_ plan in shambles.

Thankfully they had stopped at the spare base that day when the attack happened. (Though not so thankfully it meant that all the healing supplies were back at the main camp.) No one died, which was good (and rare on his part), but they all took a pretty hard beating that day. Physically and mentally. Wilson practically had to drag Willow to the main base when she started screaming out death threats to the shadow creatures that were slowly coming into form.

Still, they had acquired some valuable resources that day, so it wasn’t total loss and disaster.

Until Willow came down with a cold.

It wasn’t as bad of a cold like Wilson first feared. Just a simple fever and a few sniffles. Nothing overly dangerous or life threatening. Still, he needed to keep an eye on Willow, just in case she did anything that could result in making her fever worse. (Just like their second winter together. That was a _nightmare_.) This winter seemed alright though. Small fever, no crazy antics, a well-stocked food supply, maintained walls for added protection, and plenty of wood for the fire.

The only thing they needed to worry about was another hound attack. But that wouldn’t be for a couple days now. So this should be a relatively easy winter this time.

Wilson should be able to relax and not worry about any—

“Gah!” Wilson jumped as he felt a poke on his shoulder, twisting around to find Webber standing behind him. “Webber! By science, how many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me like that? I could have had a weapon in my hands and attacked you.”

“… ‘m sorry…” Webber mumbled, not looking at Wilson and kicking the ground with his toe.

Wilson frowned. He wasn’t used to seeing Webber like this. So unhappy and sad. He hadn’t seen Webber be happy ever since WX-78 took Chester. “No no it’s fine. I’m sorry I acted that way. Is there something you need?”

Webber was silent for a moment, kicking the snow covered ground. “… we’re out of spider glands.” He finally said after a moment’s pause.

Wilson’s eyes widened. “What? That can’t be possible.” Wilson got up, heading to his chest and looking inside. Sure enough, there were no spider glands in his chest. “How can this be? We had twenty of them! We shouldn’t be out already!” He went over to Webber’s chest, finding it empty of glands as well. “Why are we out of glands?”

“We’re out of *achoo!* of glands?” Willow spoke up.

Wilson ran his hands through his hair, grabbing the strains and shook his head. “This can’t be right! I made sure we were well stocked up just before we left the fall base!”

“But didn’t you use some when we were attacked?”

“Well yes but—” Wilson stopped short, his eyes widening. The attack! Of course! They must have used up their glands when fighting Deerclops and the Hounds! How stupid was he?! Wilson slapped his forehead, running back to his chest.

“… what are you doing?”

“I’m going out for a bit.” Wilson took out his spear.

“WHAT?! DON’T LEAVE _MEEEEEE_!”

“Willow we need those spider glands!” Wilson hooked his Tail o' Three Cats whip to his belt, grabbing some torches as well. “They’re essential to our survival! Without them we won’t be able to heal, make any hearts, or healing salve!” He went over to the fire, picking up a heated thermal stone.

“BUT I DON’T WANT YOU TO GOOOO!” Willow whined, getting up from the ground.

“Willow, stay. You’re in no condition to leave this base.”

“BUT YOU’RE LEAVING MEEEE!”

“You’re sick! I don’t want you getting any worse!”

“Then don’t leave!”

“I have to! We need those glands! Another Hound attack is coming soon and we need to be prepared.” Wilson turned to leave. “Just stay here with Webber.”

“ _NOOO!_ ” Willow lunged at Wilson, but thanks to her sickness, she was incredibly sluggish and slow. Wilson jumped out of the way, dodging her attempts to grab him.

“Willow please! I need to gather those glands before night fall!” Wilson pleaded as he dodged another lunge.

“But then I’ll be lonelllly!” Willow whined, making a grab at Wilson. Her hands managed to grab onto his spear, but Wilson still managed to escape her grasp.

Desperate for an escape, Wilson’s eyes landed on Webber. Poor sweet depressed Webber. Silently promising to make up for what he was about to do later, Wilson grabbed the surprised boy, using him as a decoy when Willow lunged and tossed him into her open arms and ran out from the base as fast as he could.

“ _WILLLLSSSSOOOOOOOOON! COME BAAAAAAACK!_ ” Willow whined pitifully.

“… Miss Willow? Can… you let go of me?”

“ _No._ You’re comfy.”

)*(

“Really Wilson, that wasn’t very nice of you to do that to poor Webber.” Wilson muttered to himself once he was far enough away from the base. He felt sorry for doing that to poor Webber, but the circumstance couldn’t be avoided. Though he would have to make up for it later to the poor boy.

“Okay, let’s see where we are.” Wilson took out his map, looking over the land marks before heading off.

Spider dens were far off from the base. Had to be since they posed a threat to develop a Spider Queen at level tier three. If their silk and glands weren’t so useful (and Webber enjoyed hanging out with creatures that were somewhat of his own kind), Wilson would have let Willow burn them all down and be rid of it all.

Though to be honest, it was rather easy to farm these creatures. Added with some help from Webber, the spiders were located somewhere safe and manageable to farm these small dangerous insects for their uses and keep the danger level low. But what Wilson loathed about it was the long walk getting to the spiders.

Yes, the spider dens were a good safe distance away from the base. Something Wilson both sighed in relief and groaned with disappointment. While he felt safe having the spider dens far away from the base, he hated how far of a walk he had to take once he needed to restock in spider glands.

But that wasn’t the worst part. Oh no! Spider gland collecting usually fell onto Webber since, well, being part spider he was the least likely to ever get hurt. So if he ever had a run in with Warrior Spiders or a Spider Queen, he would just be fine and dandy! Wilson on the other hand? He would be mauled to bits if he wasn’t careful!

(Those experiences were never a fun way to die…)

“Okay, you can do this Wilson.” Wilson took in a steady breath, unhooking his Tail o' Three Cats and tested the tension. “You’ve done this countless times before you met Willow and Webber.” (And WX-78.) “It should be easy. Webber’s bound to have set some traps down earlier, so you probably won’t need to worry too much heh heh… ehh…” Wilson gulped nervously as the familiar sign depicting a spider. (Webber hadn’t realized that he didn’t need to hold his breath while Willow sketched his head on the board. Poor boy almost fainted from lack of oxygen.)

Hyping himself, Wilson stepped out from the tree line… and did a double, then a triple, then a quadruple take as he wondered if his eyes were playing tricks him.

But they were not.

To Wilson’s greet horror, there was not one, not two, not three, but ** _SEVERAL_** tier three spider dens.

“One, two, three, five, nine… oh dear _science_.” Wilson murmured with horror as he counted up the numbers of dens. Last time he checked this place, there had only been five newly placed spider dens. But now it seemed to have not only gone up to tier three nests, but had multiplied as well! “Oh dear science. Oh dear science, oh dear scienceohdearscienceohdearscienceoh _dearscience!_ ”

Wilson wasn’t panicking! Panicking wasn’t very gentlemanly or refine! (If only his mother saw him now, how disappointed she would be to see him fall.) He most certain wasn’t wishing that Willow—no, wait, scratch that—that Webber was here right now with him!

“ _Pull yourself together Higgsbury!_ ” Wilson hissed, pulling on his hair. “This is no time to panic!” He looked about the ( _oh dear science_ ) tier three spider dens, clutching his whip to his chest tightly. He **_HATED_** spiders! (With the only exception of Webber.) And seeing this was a total **_nightmare_** for him!

“Look at this in a good way! At least none of them are out and roaming about!”

Maxwell decided to prove him wrong as the next two seconds dusk fell, and all the spiders left their dens. Even a ( _BLOODY SCIENCE_ ) Spider Queen emerged and started walking about.

Wilson wanted to scream. So. SO. _SO. **SO**_ **_BADLY_** right now! Scream to the sky high above. Scream at Maxwell’s stupid face. Scream at anything to vent his frustration out. (Or probably burn something down to the ground like Willow would do when she had too much pent-up emotions.)

But then again he would only be giving Maxwell the satisfactory in seeing him suffer. _And he did not want to give that jerk any pleasure._

“Okay, new plan.” Wilson ducked behind a tree. “There’s at least a good number of normal spiders around. Just need to lure some of them away from the dens.” He checked his whip. “This whip won’t last very long against a group of warrior spiders, so best to be careful.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Okay. Okay. Lead away some normal spiders, don’t attract any warrior ones, don’t get spotted by the Queen Spider, and get back to base before Willow starts worrying and comes looking for you. Good plan Wilson. Good plan.” Wilson nodded, peeking out from behind the tree.

Looking right into the eyes of the Spider Queen.

“… _bloody science._ ”

)*(

Wilson was an excellent runner.

Or, he rather believed himself to be a good runner since he kept finding himself running away from danger hot on his tail. Really, it was much too often that Wilson ran for his life from dangers, it was almost comedic!

At least he getting a fair amount of exercise from all this running Wilson thought as he rounded a tree, missing the Spider Queen’s attempt to lunge at him. Still, he knew he was in trouble. For one, his whip was no good against a Spider Queen. He had done plenty to tests of every weapon that he managed to craft against every hostile creature he’d encountered so far. (And the many deaths that followed.) He knew the worn down whip wasn’t going to last him against a Spider Queen at its peak. There was just no way.

He didn’t have any other weapon on him (Willow took his only spear) and he didn’t have the time or material to craft one. Looking back, Wilson nearly had a heart attack as he saw that the _Spider Queen was gaining on him!_ And it didn’t help that she was being followed by a small horde of spiders.

 _Great_. Just. **_Great._**

He was probably going to die and waste a Meat Effigy. _And_ lose his beard! WHAT ELSE COULD GO WRONG?!

At that moment, while Wilson was too busy glancing behind himself, he stepped on an ice patch. His footing slipped sharply to the side, making the poor scientist cry out in alarm as he fell face first on the hard cold ground. His jaw took a hard impact, almost biting down on his tongue, and his beard did little to nothing to cushion his fall. Stars swirled in his eyes before he shook off his daze and tried to get up.

There was a hiss and Wilson cried out in pain as teeth sunk into his leg. His body acted before he could think, whipping out his Tail o' Three Cats and cracking the whip at the Warrior Spider, sending it flying off his leg. It bounced once or twice before rolling to a stop against a long thin leg. A leg that belonged to a very large spider.

Wilson tried in vain to scoot back as the Spider Queen advanced towards him, her army of spiders getting closer to him with dead set intentions to kill.

The Queen narrowed its eyes at him, poison dripping from its fangs.

Wilson knew he was going to die. He just knew it. His leg was throbbing with pain and he was too tired to run anymore. He kept cracking his whip as the spider kept advancing, backing away more and more as they kept getting closer and closer.

Seeing his doom and with no escape, Wilson closed his eyes and waited for the first spider to jump at him.

There was a hiss, then a growl, then the sound of snow being disturbed and—

And Wilson was yanked back by the collar of his vest.

Wilson didn’t have time to open his eyes before he was suddenly tossed aside, but he was almost certain he heard a deep voice yell something that he didn’t understand. The hissing of angry spiders didn’t go unnoticed, with the accompany of angry yelling and the sickening sound of spiders being squished. The sound made Wilson’s stomach turn, and the scientist curled up on himself, covering his ears to muffle the sounds.

It was a while before the sounds died away, leaving Wilson in silence. Before he could open his eyes, footsteps (heavy ones) reached his ears. Weak was never what Wilson thought of himself. He had taken on many monsters, giants, and other worldly beings and managed (barely or none at all) to survive against them. But right now, though he would never admit it, he was feeling rather small at this point for such a huge oversight of dangers this winter.

And his wounded leg felt too numb to move, so running away was still not an option.

“Крошечный человек в порядке?” A deep voice rumbled above Wilson, making the scientist flinch and curl up even more on himself. In no doubt of his mind that Wilson knew that this was a person, a survivor like him, Willow, and Webber. But was this survivor friendly? Or we’re they another WX?

Wilson flinched again as ( _ohscienceohscienceoh **SCIENCE THOSE HANDS ARE HUGE!**_ ) he was lifted up off the ground. “Не хорошо спать в снегу. Снег хорош, но земля не удобна, чтобы спать на маленьком человеке.” The deep voice rumbled in what Wilson could only assume was laughter. If Wilson hadn’t felt tiny before, he certainly did now. “… Крошечный человек говорит по-русски?”

Wilson really wished to be back at the base where it was safe.

“… Is Tiny Man alright?” Wilson’s head perked up. “Leg is bleeding lots. Does not look good to Wolfgang.” Wilson blinked open his eyes, looking up at the… blurry person? Why was there a blurry person before him?

… And why did he feel so light… head… ed…

)*(

Yelling.

Wilson awoke to the sound of yelling. And a painful headache.

Groaning, he sat up, rubbing his temples. (It shouldn’t be _this_ early for Willow to be yelling.)

“Oh! Tiny Man is awake! Good morning!”

“Morn’.” Wilson mumbled, yawning.

“Did Tiny Man sleep well last night? Wolfgang was worried for friend when Tiny Man didn’t respond to Wolfgang’s voice.”

Wilson sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Slept as well as anyone could in this place.” He turned to look at the owner of the voice… doing a double take. There was a very thin man sitting on a log next to Webber. A man only wearing a red and white striped jumpsuit that hung baggy on his body.

“Oh good! Wolfgang is happy new friend slept well! Now, could Tiny Man stop Fire Woman?” The thin frail looking man pointed to where a large smoke cloud was coming. “She has not stopped burning spiders for long time now.”

)*(

The man’s name was Wolfgang, and apparently he was the ‘world’s strongest man alive’…

Which was very doubtful in Webber’s eyes.

“Wolfgang does not lie! Wolfgang is strongest man alive!”

“But you look so thin. You couldn’t lift Mister Wilson up.”

Wolfgang scoffed, flexing his thin arm. “Wolfgang is thin because Wolfgang has not eaten in some time. When Wolfgang’s belly is full, he will be mighty again!”

“ _Where did you find this loon at?_ ” Webber heard Miss Willow mumble to Mister Wilson as she helped him walk back to the base, which he just shook his head and shrugged.

)*(

It was hard to decide how to feel about their new ‘friend’.

For one, he was a _slight_ improvement of their last **friend**. He helped around the base as much as he could, though… help wasn’t the right word as most of the help he tried to give required strength and… _hoooh_ boy. Wilson kept patching the poor guy up more than she could count. At least he was _trying_. That, Willow could not deny. Not the _best_ help, but still, he seemed okay enough for Wilson to vouch for him to stay.

And she was only letting stick man stay because one, he was super thin that bones could be seen against skin (yikes), two, he claimed to save Wilson’s life (which was still very hard to believe given how puny the guy was), three, he was trying to make himself useful in his temporary stay (which was… was not very helpful), four, the guy hated Maxwell (which was a small plus since _who **didn’t**_ hate that guy?), and finally… he was at least friendly to Webber.

“And then what happened?”

“That’s when the elephant charged to Wolfgang! Swinging trunk around like angry tree!” Wolfgang swung his frail arm around his head as he told his story, engrossing Webber with his tale.

Willow wasn’t sure if it was alright to let the strange guy around Webber at first, but Wolfgang really didn’t seemed to be all that bad with the kid. In fact he was rather nice (once he got over the shock at first sight of him) and openly friendly with the spider. And Webber seemed to lighten up around Wolfgang, even cracking a few giggles and smiles.

“Well, they’re certainly getting along.” Wilson sighed.

“He seems to be okay. Though, I’m still doubting the ‘strongman’ thing.” Willow huffed, applying the salve against Wilson’s wounded leg. “Sorry.” She apologized as Wilson hissed with pain.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. The stinging means it’s working.” Wilson reassured her. “I’m just glad nothing vital was cut when that spider bit me. Still a nasty bite though.”

“And I’m still not believing that _that_ guy saved you.” Willow pointed her thumb at Wolfgang.

Wilson frowned, looking at Wolfgang as he finished up his story. “Well, I… don’t actually know if he really was the person who saved me. The guy who did save me had big hands.” Wilson held up his own hands. “BIG hands. _It made me feel so small in their grip_.”

“Really?” Willow looked at Wolfgang with a raised brow. “That guy? Huge hands? As if!”

)*(

The howl signaled the attack before they could see the bloody beasts.

The first rays of sunshine signaled the new day, but the howl signaled the sign of the attack that was coming towards them. Wilson had hopped they had a few days to heal more before the next attack, but when was luck ever on their side?

“Mister Wilson! Mister Wilson! I can see them coming!” Webber, sweet Webber, shouted at his lookout point on the wall (the wall they had managed to build and worked so hard to ensure their base’s safety from attacks). Wilson cursed silently as he limped over to his chest and took out his Tentacle Spike.

“Friends have trouble with puppies too?” Wolfgang peeked out above the wall.

“They’re not puppies. They’re hounds! Mean doggies who like to bite us!” Webber explained as he got down from the wall. “And they’re going to tear our base apart if we don’t stop them!”

“Oh! Wolfgang will help defend friends!”

“No!” Willow stepped up, coughing into her fist. “No, you stay here and watch Webber. Wilson and I can deal with it.”

“Willow, no. I’ll handle it. You’re still too sick.” Wilson placed a hand on her shoulder, but she brushed him off, gripping her fire staff tightly.

“And you’re still hurt! You can’t expect to handle all those hounds on your own! You’ll get killed!”

“You’ll be killed too if you go out there!” Wilson countered.

“So?! At least both my legs can still get me out of danger instead of hobbling away!”

“There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to out run them! And what if they bite you?! Do you know how many germs could be in a hound’s mouth?! You’ll be down with something much worse than a simple flu!”

“Uh guys?”

“So?! At least I won’t be torn to shreds!”

“Guys?”

“Oh don’t start on me with that!”

“ _Guuuyss?_ ”

“And why not?! You get mauled to death nearly every month!”

“ _Not on purpose if that’s what you’re—_ ”

“ **GUYS!** ”

“ ** _NOT NOW WEBBER! CAN’T YOU SEE WE’RE ARGUING?!_** ” The adults yelled at Webber. Their anger vanished when a yelp sounded out and an Ice Hound’s head smashed through the wall. They had no time to process what happened before an angry yell tore through the air.

Sprinting (and hobbling) towards the entrance, Wilson and Willow peeked out to see the biggest, beefiest, human man either of them had ever seen, punching Hounds left and right, laughing like he was having the time of his life as he tossed the beasts as if they were just ragdolls.

Jaws hit the floor as both adults could only stare in shock as the man single handily took on the Hounds. Only Webber was the only one cheering the man on from his lookout spot on the wall, watching them punch an Ice Hound’s face in.

“Go Wolfgang go! Hit ‘em left and right! You’re gonna win this fight! Stick ‘em up to those mean doggies then go attack the froggies! Go go Wolfgang go! Yaaaaaay!”

)*(

When the last Hound was dealt with (and once their shock had worn off) and every Monster Meat, tooth, and any blue gems that were dropped were collected, there was only one thing on everyone’s mind.

“HOW THE BLOODY HECK DID YOU GET SO **_HUGE?!_** ” Willow screamed (with some minor coughing), poking the thick muscle of Wolfgang’s chest. “You literally were nothing but bones in a skin suit minutes ago!”

Wolfgang smiled, flexing his massive arm. “Fire Woman impressed?”

“Very. Very impressed.” Willow nodded her head, looking Wolfgang up and down. “But how did you get so big and beefy so quickly? And why are your hands so huge?!” She grabbed one of his hands, placing her own hand against it and awed at the sheer size comparison. “You’re hands are like meaty hammers! Wilson! Look how huge his hands are!”

“I saw Willow.” Wilson mumbled, eyes trained on Wolfgang’s arm, examining it thoroughly. “… This doesn’t make any sense. Just moments ago you looked to be on death’s door, and now? Now you’re in perfect health! How could this have happened?”

“Ha! Tiny Man funny!” Wolfgang laughed, lifting the arm Wilson was examining and by extension Wilson himself. “Wolfgang said it before! When Wolfgang’s belly is fully, he becomes mighty!”

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Wilson dangled on Wolfgang’s arm, kicking his legs (and suddenly missing being on solid ground) and trying to hoist himself up.

“Oh! Oh! Pick me up! Pick me up!” Webber came running up, holding his arms up and bounced in place. “ _Plllllease_ pick me up Mister Wolfgang! I want to be held too!”

Wolfgang chuckled, scooping Webber up with his free arm and set him on his shoulders. Webber’s eyes sparkled as he viewed his new high point. “Does Spider Child like being tall?” Wolfgang asked.

“ _YES!_ ”

“Uhh Wolfgang? Could you please be so kind to put me down? My feet can’t touch the ground…”

“Hey why do you guys get to play with Wolfgang? I want to join in! Lift me up big guy!”

“Willow please! Don’t encourage him!” Wilson’s pleads fell on deaf ears as Wolfgang lifted Willow up, holding her high as she smiled at Wilson.

“What’s the matter Will? Feeling _tiny?_ ”

“You’re only taller by two inches Willow! I’m _not_ short!”

“Tiny Man is tiny to Wolfgang.”

“You don’t count!”

“ _I’m so taaaaallll!_ ”

“I think I’m going to like having this guy around! We could use the extra muscles!”

“Wolfgang is mighty!”

“ _Please Put Me Down!_ ”

“ _TAAAAALLLLLLL!_ ”

And at that moment, Wolfgang’s stomach growled and shrunk. Everyone screamed out in alarm as the now wimpy Wolfgang struggled to hold them all up, only to fall backwards and land in a pile. Sitting up, each survivor glanced at each other before bursting out into fits of laughter.

)*(

**“ _Disgusting_. What a revolting sight.”**

Maxwell hissed as he watched the sickening display shown in the orb before him, frowning deeply as the frail strong man brought the group into a hug.

 **“You certainly are surrounding yourselves with sickening joy aren’t you?”** He summoned a lit cigar, biting down on it. **“And got yourself a new member in your rag tag team.”** He waved his hand, summoning another orb. **“Well, you’re not the only ones I suppose. Few of the others are teaming up as well.”**

Taking a long drag, Maxwell let the smoke sit in his mouth for a moment before letting it out. **“Frankly, I was hoping for bloodshed and backstabbing than team up’s and tagalongs.”** He glared at the new orb. **“Especially from _you._ ”**

The new orb showed a small little figure sitting on top of a fallen pillar in one of the Chess Biomes, gazing intently at a small flower held protectively in their hands.

 **“Really, I wasn’t expecting you of all people to want company from others. Since you’ve already have someone to watch your back.”** The small figure looked up from the flower to the distance, tilting their head a bit before carefully pocketing in their skirt and sliding off the marble. Maxwell’s eyes narrowed, taking another drag of his cigar. **“Then again. Maybe you need the extra protection. Can’t always rely on your sister on can we?”**

The small figure moved to a certain distance before another figure’s image appeared, stopping before them and looking up. Their mouth was moving, but the orb couldn’t produce a single sound. Or maybe the figure was speaking quietly and he just couldn’t hear it over the ( ** _agonizing, horrible, torturous, never ending, hellish, unbearable, excruciating, accursed_** ) Gramaphone’s music. Whatever or whichever it was, he did not care.

What he _did_ care about was the survivors suddenly mingling together. How and why they were able to suddenly find and mingle with each other was still a mystery to Maxwell. In normal circumstances, there should only be one survivor for each of his worlds. That was how it always started and began for each survivor that he took.

That all changed however when **_Higgsbury_** somehow landed in an already occupied world. (Or was it the fire woman that landed in Higgsbury’s world? He couldn’t recall which one occupied the world first.) He was sure the fire obsessed woman would certainly skewered the man through when she first laid eyes upon him. (He could certainly remember the times her spear almost getting him in the head.) But **_NO_**. No she spared him, letting him live and forming their small _ridiculous_ group that faced his world with renewed energy and hope that made him want to vomit blood.

Although, he did rather enjoy watching the rather amusing misfortunes that fell upon Higgsbury thanks to the fire woman. He certainly didn’t think a man could scream that high and fret over such little things stuck in their hair. What man obsessives over _hair?_ And seeing all his work go up in flames was very satisfying.

But as amusing as it was for a while, the fun didn’t stay long as more survivors somehow kept winding up in the particular world.

The spider child he could overlook as a small mishap. Dead was dead, yet he didn’t think the child would be revived so easily like that. Then again, Higgsbury was quiet a sentimental man Maxwell had ever encountered. He still didn’t understand how burying the skull in a grave brought the child back to life, but he had more things to focus on than figuring that one out.

The robot however was a completely different story. Somehow the automaton stumbled into that world, and still sustaining its injuries from the other world it crossed over from. Maxwell had searched every corner of both worlds, and still could not find out how the robot managed to cross over to that world and then to another world later on.

And now there was the strong man.

Maxwell had been unsure before, but now he was certain that there was something with this certain world that was allowing survivors to cross over. But what was it? A vial? A thin crack in the worlds? Or was it a force that was messing with him?

A force like… her.

His stomach dropped as the thought of _her_ crossed his mind.

No. No, this was not her work. She wouldn’t do something like this. Whatever it was. There was no clear pattern and there was no motive Maxwell could think of that would clear things up.

Still, he had to wonder. What was causing survivors to cross paths in different worlds?

He looked at the first orb again, watching the group sitting around the fire eating breakfast. The strong man was back to his muscle form again, letting the spider child sit on his head. Higgsbury seemed to be fretting over the child’s safety as the fire woman was ( _literally_ ) sitting in the fire.

How such a ragtag team managed to survive for so long was beyond him. (Higgsbury’s track record of survival certainly didn’t help very much.) He certainly didn’t want this to keep going. Yet, it was intriguing to see how far they would go to surviving working together.

This group was managing by so far. Others were struggling to trust one another before back stabbing and traitors started popping up here and there.

Though, this world wasn’t the only one with compatible team work.

There was a few other groups who were managing to survive together. Small, and don’t tend to last long, but still managing to survive none the less. Though the last group got trampled by a Deerclops and all perished. Not a single ghost appeared though. Pity. He did like that group.

None the less, he would have to keep an eye on Higgsbury’s group for a while. Who knows who else might pop up next?


	5. Woodie

_Wood wood wood wood wood wood!_

_Munch munch munch munch munch munch!_

_Tree tree tree tree tree tree!_

_Gotta find tree! Gotta find wood! Gotta munch! Gotta find tree and munch wood!_

_Tree wood munch! Tree wood munch! Tree wood munch! Tree wood munch! Tree wood munch! Tree wood munch! Tree—_

_Tree?_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

_Wood so tast—_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

_Tree is gone. Belly is ful—_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

_Fun to munch on—_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUN—_

_Voice calls him._

_Munching stops._

_Voice is familiar. Oh! Pack member is calling him._

_Pat tail on ground in greeting._

_Pack member is giving them the look._

_Uh oh._

_Pack member is not happy with him._

_They scowl him and point at stumps._

_Heh. Stupid trees. They never stand a chance agains—_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHUMNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

**_TRRRREEEEEEE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUN—_

_Scream?_

_Pack member?_

_No._

_Scream doesn’t sound like pack member._

_Scream sounds young._

_Scream sounds like… other pack member._

_Pup?_

_Scream again!_

_Pup is in danger!_

_Running towards scream. Save pup! Save pup!_

_New scent hits nose._

_Oh!_

_It must be the pup’s smell!_

_Along with bad smell._

**_Danger._ **

_Pup is in danger!_

_Running towards pup._

_Found pup!_

_Pup is surrounded by metal monsters, holding broken stick to keep them back._

_Pup is in danger._

_Growling, lunging, biting down on closest metal monster and rip off its head._

_Metal monsters attack, they fight back._

_Tall metal monster shoots lighting at them, hitting them in the arm._

_They swing their tail, sending tall metal monster flying._

_Animal metal monster charges at them._

_They charge back, meeting metal monster head on._

_Heads collide._

_Ringing in ears, but manage to shake it off and bite down on metal monster’s face._

_Another metal monster is charging at them._

_They swing the metal monster in their mouth at them, colliding metal monster against metal monster._

**_Pain._ **

_They scream out, whipping around and biting down on tall metal monster that returned for more, chomping into its disgusting tasting insides and ripping it to shreds._

_Something rammed into their side, sending them to the ground._

_Their side and arm flared with pain._

_They get back up, growling that the metal animals._

_Metal animals charge at them._

_They charge back._

_One goes down, but the other dodges their advancing attacks._

_Claws barely scrap them._

_Tail can’t reach them._

_Teeth can’t get them._

_Too fast. Too FAST!_

_Suddenly animal metal monster has a stick in its eye and lets out a terrible scream that hurts their ears._

_They slap it down with tail, hitting it over and over till it’s still and flat._

_They slap tail down on it again for good measure then snort._

_Blood is filling their smell._

_They turn to look at pup._

_Pup seems okay._

_If pup was alright, everything was alright._

_They get closer to pup, sniffing them carefully._

_Pup pats their nose._

_Tells them they did good._

_Tail wags._

_They did good! They did good! They di—_

**_TREE!_ **

_MUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCHMUNCH!_

)*(

“WOLFGANG! NO! STOP! STOP! _I COMMAND YOU TO STOP RIGHT THIS—!_ EEP! NOOOO!”

“Get back here Tiny Man!”

“NO! NOT IN A MILLION LIGHT YEARS!”

“Tiny Man will come to Wolfgang’s hands!”

“IN YOUR DREAMS!”

“Tiny Man!”

“AND STOP CALLING ME TINY MAN! _I’M NOT SHORT!_ ”

“Get him Mister Wolfgang!”

“ ** _WEBBERYOU’RENOTHELPING!_** ”

The peace and quiet of the forest had long been shattered as Wilson kept screaming at the top of his lungs as Wolfgang chased him around with Webber ridding on his shoulders. This had been going on for a while now since the first rays of sunlight came up, and the scientist had been running for his life ever since he woke up.

“Tiny Man! You will come to Wolfgang!”

“Please Mister Wilson! We’re just trying to help you!”

“BITE ME!” Wilson rounded a tree, running towards an area he hoped he remembered correctly.

“Tiny Man cannot out run Wolfgang forever!”

“Yeah! You have to be getting tired soon Mister Wilson!”

“ _That I am Webber!_ ” Wilson smirked as he spotted what he was looking for, making a mad dash for it. “BUT YOU’LL NEVER CATCH ME SUCCCCCC _CCCCCCCKKKKKKKKEEEERRRRRSSSSSSSSSSS!_ ” Wilson dived to the ground, jumping right into the open mouth of a Worm Hole.

Wolfgang skidded to a halt, looking down into the open mouth in the ground with wide eyes. “The ground ate Tiny Egghead Man!”

“ _Nooooo!_ Not Mister Wilsoooon!” Webber cried, jumping off of Wolfgang and kneeled next to the hole. “He was doing so well! He didn’t die for _days!_ Mean ground! How could you eat our friend?!”

“Wolfgang will SMASH Ground Mouth!”

While the two continued to shout death threats at the (very very confused and with slightly hurt feelings) Worm Hole, Wilson popped right out the other end fine and dandy. (Landing on his face and covered in slime, but still fine.)

“HA! Showed them! I knew neither of them knew about Worm Holes! They’ll never find me now! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!” Wilson laughed to the sky, giggling madly with glee. His giggling stopped short however as a shadow creature stared at him from a distance. When their eyes made contact, it slithered away into the shadows. “… eh heh…” He took off in a sprint.

)*(

“Seriously? How could you guys not know about Worm Holes?”

Wolfgang tapped his fingers together looking down at the ground in shame as Webber fidgeted. Willow sighed, running her hand over her face. “Okay. Okay. We still have plenty of daylight left. Wilson couldn’t have gone far. Especially with this heat out today.” She looked up at the clear sky.

The sun’s rays were coming down harsh on the land, baking the earth to a crisp and cinder. “With that beard on his face, he’s bound to stop somewhere and rest. Or fall over with heatstroke.” Willow shrugged. “Whichever comes first I guess.”

“So what now?” Webber asked as Willow took off her backpack.

“We split up and find Wilson.” Willow took out a pair of straw hats, handing the hats to Webber and Wolfgang. She took out a chilled thermal stone as well and placed it underneath Webber’s hat. “Make sure you guys don’t overheat okay? I don’t want everybody getting heatstroke out here. Now, go out there and find our geeky scientist!”

“Right!” They both saluted her, heading off into a random direction. As soon as they were gone, Willow sighed.

“Honestly Wilson. Running away like a little kid? That’s really not very gentleman like.” Shaking her head, she stepped towards the Worm Hole, jumping inside the open maw. “And they could at least followed you in here!”

Landing out on the other side, Willow gagged at the thin cover of slime on her body. “ _Take the Worm Hole Willow. It’s perfectly fine Willow. I jump in them all the time Willow. No you can’t burn them Willow._ Yuck!” Willow flicked the slime off her face. “When this is all over, you and I are going to have a _loooong_ talk about your sanity mister.”

Standing up, she glanced around the area, looking for any clues that could lead her in the right direction. “Now where could that nerd run off to?” Her eyes landed on a stray straw hat laying on the ground.

A straw hat covered in a thin dry coat of slime.

“A-ha!” Willow smirked, snatching the hat up as she walked forwards. She hummed to herself as she took off bits and pieces of lose strains of grass and burned them to bits with her lighter. “What do you do when your friend’s gone mad? Don’t you think that it’s so sad? What do you do to a broken lad? Do you think that it’s so bad?” She smiled, her humming tuning into a song as she continued on.

_I once knew a man who wanted to conquer the world with his mind~_

_His eyes gleamed with hidden ideas and had unquenching thirst for knowledge~_

_Mad, they all said~_

_Mad they say he was~_

_Day in and out he throws himself into his studies~_

_Day in day out, lost in his own little world~_

_Day in day out~_

_Day in day out~_

_Show him stone, he turns it into a gem~_

_Show him a bird, he makes it disappear with a word~_

_Day in day out he throws himself into his studies~_

_Day in day out, lost in his own little world~_

_Day in day out~_

_Day in day out~_

_There’s a fire in his soul, one that burns brightly~_

_How he clings to this light very tightly~_

_This world will see my great inventions~_

_They will marvel and awe at this fine comprehensions~_

_Mad, they all said~_

_Mad they say he was~_

_Day in day out he throws himself into his studies~_

_Day in day out, lost in his own little world~_

_Day in day out~_

_Day in day out~_

_Show him stone, he turns it into a gem~_

_Show him a bird, he makes it disappear with a word~_

_Day in day out he throws himself into his studies~_

_Day in day out, lost in his own little world~_

_Day in day out~_

_Day in day out~_

_I visit him every day, to see and marvel at his creations~_

_He lets me in into his little world~_

_It’s full of interesting things, full of surprises~_

_Oh how it makes me smile~_

_Mad, they all said~_

_Mad they say I was~_

_Yes it is mad to see a mad man~_

_But who is the one who’s mad~?_

_A man of science or a lady of fire~?_

_Who is more mad~?_

_A lonely man trapped in his own little world~?_

_Or a girl trapped in the real world~?_

_Who is more mad~?_

_Who is more mad~?_

_Who is more mad~?_

_…_

_Day in, day out~_

_Lost in our own world~_

_Day in, day out~_

_Oh how it burns~_

_Day in, day out~_

_He makes me smile~_

_Day in, day out~_

_He makes life worthwhile~_

_Day in, day out~_

_Throws himself into his studies~_

_Day in, day out~_

_Needs to be pulled out of his worries~_

_Day in, day out~_

_Needs a friend to burn away his worries~_

_Day in~_

_Day out~_

_Show him stone, he turns it into a gem~_

_Show him a bird, he makes it disappear with a word~_

_Day in day out he throws himself into his studies~_

_Day in day out, lost in his own little world~_

_Day in day out~_

_Day in day out~_

_Day in~_

_Day out~_

Humming the last of her little song, Willow glanced up. Her little walk led her to a Savanna. “Well isn’t this a nice sight! A Savanna! Wow! Look at all this grass.” Her eyes landed on something, smirking. “It’s such a good thing I came across this Savanna. Wouldn’t want anybody I know here right now.” She took out her lighter, smiling evilly as she went over to a certain plant. “Especially since summer is a nice time to _burn_ things to a—”

“ _DON’T YOU BLOODY SCIENCE DARE!_ ”

Willow clicked her lighter close, placing her hands on her hips and glared. “Bingo.” Willow smirked as Wilson let out a small ‘oops’. “Thought you could escape through a Worm Hole huh?”

“Well it certainly worked on Webber and Wolfgang. But how did you manage to find me?”

“You dropped this.” Willow held up the straw hat. “ _And_ you’re literally hiding in a bush hat in the _mild of a Savanna_.”

“… Point taken.”

Willow sighed, shaking her head. “Wilson. Come out of the bush.”

“No!”

“Will.”

“No!”

“Will!”

“No!”

“Wilson Percival Higgsbury I did not chase you through spring _and_ over half of the bloody summer just to have this conversation with you! You get out of that bush this instant!”

“No!”

“You’re acting childish! I thought you were a gentleman!”

“I am! You’re the one acting childish!”

“I am not!”

“Are too!”

“Are not!”

“Are too!”

“I am not!”

“You are too!”

“I am—you know what? Screw this. Get ‘em Wolfgang!”

“Wha—ACK!” Willow smiled as the strong man snuck up behind Wilson, grabbing him by the bush hat and lifting him off the ground.

“Good work big guy!” Willow patted the strongman’s arm, smirking at the glaring Wilson.

“Release me this instant!” The scientist growled, kicking his legs out wildly.

“Oh we’ll let you go.” Willow placed one hand in her pocket, pulling out an item that made Wilson freeze up. “Right after we shave off that ridiculous eyesore!”

“It is not an eyesore!”

“Wilson you’ve been growing that beard out since last winter!” Willow waved the razor around, ignoring the flinches from Wilson when it went even a smidgen close to his face. “It’s the middle of the bloody summer! It has to go!”

“No! You can’t get rid of it!” Wilson tried covering his hairy face, which was hard to do since there was more hair than his arms could conceal.

“You found him!” The three adults turned their heads, watching Webber running up to them.

“Listen Wilson.” Willow point the razor at him, glaring at him with one hand on her hip. “We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.”

“If you’re keen on shaving something, why not shave off Webber’s beard instead?” Wilson pointed at Webber’s face, which had some webbing starting to gather around his face.

“Because his beard isn’t as bad as yours! Seriously Wilson! What compelled you not to shave your beard for nearly eight months?! That thing is more trouble than it’s worth! It nearly killed you multiple times with heatstroke and tripping your own face because it’s so bloody long!”

“It’s not long!” Wilson protested, but Willow grabbed the end of his beard, holding it out to Webber.

“Webber go run around with this.”

“Okay!” Webber took the end of the beard, running off laughing with the thick hair.

“This is absurd! There’s nothing wrong with my beard!”

“Mister have you even seen yourself in the mirror lately?! You look like a monster version of a Beardling! Not to mention how much of struggle it’s been to keep you alive because of it!”

“You were snuggling in it before.” Wilson muttered.

“That was in _winter!_ This! Is summer! With heat and fire and Dragonflys and forest fires and Red Hounds and monsters and everything! Wolfgang! Tell him how much trouble his beard has been!”

“Wolfgang does not like Tiny Man’s beard.” Wolfgang put in his option, not really paying attention to the conversation and instead watched Webber run around boulders and grass with the beard, completely wrapping them in hair and still going.

“See? Wolfgang doesn’t like it. I don’t like it. Webber especially doesn’t like it.”

“Guys look!” The adults looked at Webber. “I’m a mini monster Beardling too!” The spider child giggled, covered in the thick beard and even fuzzier than before.

“… Well Webber doesn’t seemed to mind it.”

“… HOLD HIM DOWN WOLFGANG! I’M SHAVING IT OFF!”

“Wait WHAT NOOO!” Wilson screamed as Willow started shaving off the ridiculously long beard while Wolfgang held down the scientist. And poor Webber could only look on in confusion as Wilson cried and screamed for mercy, kicking his legs like a child.

)*(

“See? Now was that so hard?”

Wilson grumbled something under his breath, his face clean of any beard hair and now covered in razor cuts. Willow only smirked, patting the scientist on the back.

“Oh _re-lax_. At least you won’t have to worry about killing yourself with heatstroke now. And we’ve got a lot beard hairs to make plenty of Meat Effigies!” Willow looked back at Wolfgang, who was carrying the said offending item with Webber helping carrying the end of it. (Said item look like two black haired Beefalos stacked on top each other.) “Besides, you look better without a beard.”

“Oh what a complement.” Wilson sighed, quickly making his way over to the Alchemy Engine grumbling under his breath.

“Is Mister Wilson going to be okay?” Webber asking, holding the end of the beard over his head.

“Oh he’ll be fine. This isn’t the first time he had to be hunted down because of his beard.” Willow waved off the worry. “I used to chase him around trying to make him shave his beard off long before you guys showed up.” She looked at the beard. “Now… where are we going to put this?”

)*(

Summer was an easy time of the year. At least that’s what everybody assumed it to be since food was easier to gather and the only worry they needed to be aware of was the Hounds, monsters, Antlion (though Wolfgang already took care of that little problem), and the Dragonfly.

(And trying to get Wilson to shave his beard every time the hot season rolled up.)

The main concern was mostly focused on the heat as nobody (besides Willow) could handle the hot temperatures for so long. While the Ice Flingomatic helped prevent any unwanted fire in their camp (everybody kept a close eye on Willow) half of the group stayed near the Endothermic Fire to keep cool.

The other half however.

“ _Wilson get your butt over to the fire right now!_ ”

“No! I’m nearly through with a breakthrough Willow! I need to stay with the Alchemy Engine!”

“Wilson you are literally burning over here! You need to get in the shade right now!”

“Ten more minutes! Fifteen?! Just long enough for me to finish this!”

“I SWEAR YOUR STUBBORNNESS KILLS YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD!”

“Wolfgang is impressed Tiny Man has strong grip on tiny machine.”

“Mm hmm.” Webber nodded his head, nibbling on his Melonsicle. He and Wolfgang were watching the pair argue over a few minutes now, watching Willow try to pry Wilson away from the Alchemy Engine which the scientist refused to budge his grip on the machine.

“I just need more time Willow! Just a bit more!”

“ _You are **burning** to **death!**_ ”

Wolfgang shook his head, rubbing the sweat off his face. “Wolfgang needs ice.” He stood up away from the fire, heading over to the ice box.

“I’ll be done quickly! Just let me finish this first!”

“ ** _I will literally take you and the machine and throw you into the fire if I have to!_** ”

Wolfgang rummaged around in the ice box, knowing that Wilson stored some ice cream somewhere inside the tiny box in the back. He smiled as he pulled out his prize. In one gulp, the cold treat was gone, cooling the large man down. “Much better!” The strong man smiled, standing up to head back to the blue fire. However he spotted something that made him pause.

“An hour! I’ll be done in one hour!”

“ _WILSON—!_ ”

“THE HUNT IS ON!” Wolfgang suddenly shouted, snapping everyone’s attention towards him. “Ha ha! Today is good day to hunt! Come friends!” Wolfgang went over to the pair, grabbing Willow and effortlessly pulling Wilson off the alchemy machine, placing them both on his shoulders. “The hunt calls for us!”

“W-Wolfgang wait! I-I need to finish something first!” Wilson tried to scoot of the strongman’s shoulders, but Wolfgang held him firmly.

“Nonsense! The hunt waits for no one! Come Spider Child! We hunt for glory and meat today!”

“B-But Wolfgang—!”

“Oh relax Wilson. There’s nothing wrong with going on a little hunt.” Willow reached over Wolfgang’s head to pat Wilson on the shoulder. “Besides, you really need to get out of the sun. Your skin is starting to turn pink.” She pointed at his arm.

Wilson glanced at himself, viewing the reddening skin that was starting to hurt. The straw hat on his head was failing to keep him safe against the sun. Sighing in defeat, seeing as there was no way out once Wolfgang wanted everyone to go on the hunt with him and Webber was bringing spears for everyone anyway, Wilson resigned to his fate. “Well, as long as nothing goes wrong, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to hunt a—”

)*(

“ _VAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!_ ”

Everyone was running for their lives as Hounds **_and_** a Varg were hot on their tails.

“A Varg! A VARG! _OF BLOODY SCIENCE COURSE IT HAD TO BE A VARG INSTEAD OF A KOALEFANT!_ ” Wilson screamed, yelping when a Red Hound nearly bit him in the rear.

“Okay! I admit! This isn’t looking too good!” Willow took a chance to glance behind them, counting the number Hounds that were on their heels. “I think a Ewecus would be better than this right about now!”

“I DON’T WANT TO BE BITTEN BY A VAARRG!” Webber wailed, running in front of the group.

“Wolfgang can take on Big Puppy!”

“Oh no! Not with _that_ many Hounds mister! Just keep running!” Willow pulled Wolfgang along, making sure the strongman didn’t go through with his suicide mission. “Wilson! Any plans?!”

“Just one! _RUUUUUNNNNN!_ ”

“ _Great_ plan dork!”

The group continued to run for their lives as the monsters continued to chase after them, wanting the taste of blood on their teeth. Seeing as their pursuers were not stopping their hunt, Willow and Wilson looked around for a way to go that would help them.

Wilson spotted a forest.

Willow spied some Beefalo in the distance.

Both were in opposite directions from each other.

“THIS WAY!” They both shouted, not realizing they were heading opposite directions as Willow took Wolfgang and Webber towards the Beefalo and Wilson, too caught up in his fear to survive and not be Varg food, ran into the woods. Immediately, seeing their prey separate, the Hounds split off. One half chasing after Willow and her group and the other along with the Varg chased after Wilson.

Wilson ducked into the trees, running deep inside them in hopes to lose the Hounds chasing him, unaware that he was alone. “Keep running! We can lose them in here!”

His heart skipped a beat as the howl of the Varg echoed in the air behind him. The sound of Hounds barking were gaining on him. “Willow, this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to set the forest on fire! If we set the trees on fire and make it out to safety, we can trap the Hounds in here and burn them! Okay?! … Willow?!”

When Wilson finally realized that he was alone, being chased by Hounds _and_ the Varg, his heart dropped lower than his stomach.

“ ** _OH BLOODY SCIENCE!_** ” He screamed out, high tailing it as fast he could.

He ran between trees, through bushes, jumping over stones, and avoided the sharp fangs of the Hounds that tried to bite him. There was no way he was going to die at the jaws of a Varg today. It was already troubling keeping his Meat Effigies from burning up in the sun, up he had a pretty nice surviving streak going on right now.

“ _Leave Me Alone You Walking Fleabags!_ Go Hunt A Gobbler Or A Tallbird Or Something That Isn’t _Meeeeee!_ ” Wilson pleaded, jumping out of the way of the Varg’s snapping teeth. “ _STOP CHASING—!_ ”

The ground beneath Wilson’s feet vanished, and suddenly he was falling. He didn’t have time to grab anything or register what was happening or dodge the Varg’s teeth that barely got the chance to get its jaws around his head as he plummeted down deep, deep into the darkness below, screaming as he descended from the surface world to the underground.

His mind only thought of one thing through all the fear as he spiraled into the darkness.

How no one but the Hounds and the Varg only knew where he was.

And his friends didn’t.

)*(

“…”

“…”

“…— **p.”**

**“…—e up!”**

Wilson groaned. His body was filled with aching pain as his consciousness slowly came back to him.

**“WAKE UP!”**

There was sudden pain blossoming in his side. Wilson gasped in pain, coughing roughly as he slowly sat up on his knees holding his pained side.

**“Finally! It’s about time _pal_.”**

“Wha?” Wilson blinked, looking over at the voice and— “MAXWELL!” The scientist scooted back, glaring up at the frowning puppet master. “What are you—” Wilson started, but his body suddenly flared with pain. He was suddenly very aware how his mouth tasted like copper and how his limbs felt exceedingly heavy and limp. He gasped, suddenly out of air, falling to his side and clutching his middle.

**“Don’t bother pushing yourself Higgsbury. Your body is still recovering from the fall.”**

“Fall?” Wilson parroted, looking up. High above his head, a single ray of light shined down from a hole high above Wilson’s head. Looking around, Wilson saw he was no longer in the familiar sights of trees and sunlight, but in cave of stone walls and shadows.

It wasn’t completely dark (thank science). The sunlight coming from the opening above made it possible for him to see a good distance. (And spy some interesting plants that peeked his interests.)

 **“Don’t think about it.”** Maxwell’s voice cut off his thoughts, reminding him of his unpleasant company. **“Look _pal_ , I don’t know how you managed to find an open sinkhole to the underground, but let me be clear that you are _not_ welcomed here.” **He jabbed a finger at Wilson’s face, growling lowly. **“Normally, I wouldn’t care what you do on the surface, but down here is a different story. Get out now, and I _might_ be merciful enough to let you live.”**

“Since when did you start caring about what I do?” Wilson asked, smacking Maxwell’s hand away from his face clumsily.

 **“Since you entered a place you shouldn’t have even stepped in.”** Maxwell growled, summoning a cigar. **“This place is full of _things_ I don’t want you finding. And knowing your uncontrollable curiosity that drives your stupidity—” **“HEY!” **“It’s best you leave now than have you sticking your nose in things you shouldn’t be looking into.”**

Maxwell took a small drag of his cigar, puffing out a small cloud of smoke. **“… Listen Higgsbury. And _listen_ well. This place is not meant for eyes of mortals to see. Down here are secrets meant to be hidden. Dangerous secrets. Don’t go poking your weird hairdo head into something that you’ll be regretting later.”** He cast Wilson a look. **“Unless. You would rather have something bad happen to your friends?”**

Wilson’s glare hardened. “And what’s that supposed to—” Wilson tried to stand up, ready to slug Maxwell across the face, but was back on the ground again in moments, his legs pulsing in pain. A slight hiss escaped his lips, rubbing his sore legs. He could feel Maxwell’s eyes staring at him.

He attempted to stand up again, but fell backwards in a tumbling heap. Again and again he tried to stand on his two legs, shaking and stumbling to regain balance but kept slipping and falling back down to the cold hard ground. It didn’t help that his head felt dizzy and his ears were ringing slightly. After failing to even have the strength to stand up, he sighed in defeat, laying out flat on his back with one arm covering his eyes.

**“… Having trouble Higgsbury?”**

“Shut. Up.” Wilson hissed. Part in anger, part in pain.

 **“Just asking.”** Wilson heard the taller man move, his shoes coming to a stop near his head and the smell of smoke hit his nose. **“Though, I really didn’t expect you to survive that fall. It is kind of a long ways down here from up there.”**

Wilson lifted his arm just enough to glare at the man. Maxwell was too busy staring up at the cave’s ceiling to notice him.

 **“It wouldn’t be too surprising if all you got was a few broken bones and a bit of major bruising. Still, I don’t think you’ll be able to move around too much.”** He cast a glance at Wilson. **“Not without some help from your friends…”** He grinned evilly. **“Oh _thaat’s_ right. You got separated from that Varg attack.”**

Wilson glared harder, willing for Maxwell’s head to set on fire.

 **“Well, I’m sure they’re doing fine without you.”** Maxwell waved a dismissing hand, stepping into the shadows, but stopped for a moment to glance over his shoulder. **“Oh, and I would try to stay in whatever light you can find down here pal. It’s much darker and more dangerous down here than it is up there.”** With that final cryptic warning, Maxwell was gone.

Wilson waited for a few minutes, being sure that the man was really gone before rolling himself into a painful sitting position. Taking a looking around, Wilson took in all that he could, spotting his spear on the ground not far from him. Crawling weakly towards it, he used it as an in-place walking stick and added crutch, keeping the pointed stone end on the ground and leaning heavily on the stick once he was on his feet again.

“Okay, now… what to do?”

)*(

Wilson had no idea how long he walk/hobbled for. The agonizing pain in his legs for each step he took constantly slowed him down, forcing him to rest much more than he wanted to. The dizziness didn’t let up as well, adding with the building nausea in his stomach. And trying to keep out of the darkness was a challenge itself.

Thankfully, there were (surprisingly) plenty of trees in the few spots of light down in the caves that Wilson could rest against and take a breath. Sighing heavily, Wilson laid his back against a tree, rubbing his temples to try and relieve some of the pain.

“This certainly feels like déjà vu.” Wilson muttered crossly, remembering all his little ‘adventures' as he explored the wilderness and learning how to survive here.

And none of it was good.

Looking down at his limbs, Wilson pondered on how he was going to get out of here in his current state. Clearly he couldn’t climb out. His arms and legs were far too tired and feeble at the moment to climb anything. He couldn’t signal for help since he didn’t have any materials that he could make something to catch anyone’s attention. Even from down here.

He could possibly build a large fire and use the smoke as a signal, but he didn’t have enough wood to burn a large enough fire. Nor did he have an axe on him to go chopping down trees. Not that his body felt like it could chop down any trees anytime soon.

Sighing, he slowly lowered himself to the ground, resting his sore limbs. This was certainly going to be harder than he thought. And while he was curious to know why Maxwell didn’t want him poking around down here, he was more worried about the threat the man made towards his friends should he not heed it.

The thought of his friends made his heart drop a little.

Were they okay? Did they escape the Hounds? Did they escape the Varg? Were they hurt? Did they have everything they needed to take care of themselves? Did they have enough food? Were they keeping out of the hot sunlight? Was Webber okay? Was Wolfgang okay? Was Willow okay? Were they all alive and safe back at the summer base? Were they looking for him? Did they notice he was missing? Would they notice he was missing? Would they be okay without him?

_Did they even need him to survive?_

“ _Stop it._ ” Wilson smacked his forehead (quickly regretting it as it only made his headache worse) and shook his head slightly. “They’re fine. They’re fine.” He closed his eyes, slowly relaxing against the tree. “They’re fine. They’re fine. They’re fine…” He continued to mutter to himself, fading out into unconsciousness and completely missing an approaching light coming towards him.

)*(

“ _WILSON?! WILSON?! WILSON, WHERE ARE YOU?! WILSON!_ ”

“MISTER WILSON! PLEASE COME OUT WHERE EVER YOU ARE!”

“TINY SCIENCE MAN! WOLFGANG IS CALLING! IS WORRIED YOU’RE HURT!”

Willow looked around, frantically searching for their missing scientist. “WILSON! COME ON! GIVE US A CLUE! OR SIGN! OR SOMETHING!”

“PLEASE BE ALRIGHT MISTER WILSON!” Webber looked up in the trees, thinking Wilson had climb up one and was stuck in the branches.

“TINY MAN! COME OUT!” Wolfgang lifted a large rock, looking under it.

“He wouldn’t be under a rock!” Willow snapped, flicking her lighter out and messed with its handle. “There no way he would get under there in the first place!”

“Tiny Man is tiny. Could fit if he tried.” Wolfgang shrugged, placing the rock back down.

“He’d be crushed under all that! And there’s no way he would fit under it!”

“Mister Wilson has to be alright, right?” Webber rubbed their hands, looking up at the adults. “The Varg couldn’t have gotten him. His Meat Effigy is still up back at the camp!”

“I’m sure Wilson is fine Webber.” Willow placed a hand on his shoulder, hiding her other hand that was holding her lighter behind her back. “If his Meat Effigy is still up, then I’m sure he’s just fine.”

“But what if he’s hurt? W-What if he’s bleeding o-or has a booboo? O-Or what if he got lost? O-Or maybe he’s dead a-and the Meat Effigy isn’t working an—”

“Web’s. Don’t worry.” Willow tightened her grip slightly, stopping the young spider boy. “This is Wilson we’re talking about! He’s been through worse things before and made it through. Plus he wouldn’t just die on us that easily.”

“H-How can you be so sure?”

“Gut instinct!” Willow patted her midsection, giving Webber a bright smile. “Trust me, if he was dead then we would know. But we got to keep looking for him okay?”

Webber was silent for a moment before nodding. “Okay.”

“Great! Let’s keep looking okay?” Willow headed off, leaving both of the boys watching as she disappeared into the trees.

Webber slowly looked at Wolfgang, all eight eyes filled with worry. “… Is Miss Willow okay Mister Wolfgang?”

Wolfgang was silent. He didn’t want to tell Webber how Willow’s hand gripping the lighter kept shaking behind her back.

)*(

What an odd looking man.

ℌ𝔢 𝔣𝔢𝔩𝔩 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔨𝔶.

His hair is really strange.

ℌ𝔢'𝔰 𝔱𝔯𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔢𝔡. 𝔏𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔲𝔰.

He seems in pain. His misery should end.

𝔑𝔬! 𝔑𝔬! 𝔐𝔯𝔰. 𝔚𝔦𝔠𝔨𝔢𝔯𝔟𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬𝔪 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡𝔫'𝔱 𝔩𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱.

Mrs. Wickerbottom isn’t here. It’s only them and the man.

𝔄𝔫𝔡 𝔚𝔬𝔬𝔡𝔦𝔢.

Yes. And Woodie. But Woodie isn’t here. Woodie doesn’t have to know.

𝔚𝔬𝔬𝔡𝔦𝔢 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔨𝔫𝔬𝔴. 𝔚𝔬𝔬𝔡𝔦𝔢 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲'𝔩𝔩 𝔡𝔬 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔭𝔲𝔫𝔦𝔰𝔥 𝔲𝔰.

What could Woodie do that could punish us? There’s nothing in this world that will move their broken will.

ℌ𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔰𝔢𝔭𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔢 𝔲𝔰. 𝔗𝔞𝔨𝔢 𝔪𝔢 𝔞𝔴𝔞𝔶 𝔰𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔫𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔞𝔨 𝔱𝔬 𝔲𝔰.

No! No he would never do that!

ℌ𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡. ℌ𝔢 𝔡𝔦𝔡 𝔦𝔱 𝔟𝔢𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔢.

And he paid with his life.

𝔄𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔫 𝔐𝔯𝔰. 𝔚𝔦𝔠𝔨𝔢𝔯𝔟𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬𝔪 𝔭𝔲𝔫𝔦𝔰𝔥𝔢𝔡 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱. 𝔚𝔢 𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔰𝔢𝔭𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫 𝔩𝔬𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯.

… yes. We were separated by cruel fate, weren’t we?

𝔜𝔢𝔰. ℑ𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔤𝔬𝔫𝔦𝔷𝔦𝔫𝔤.

I do not wish to be separated. That would be most cruel.

𝔑𝔬𝔯 𝔡𝔬 ℑ.

So. What should be done with the strange looking man?

𝔐𝔞𝔶𝔟𝔢 𝔥𝔢 𝔠𝔞𝔫 𝔥𝔢𝔩𝔭 𝔲𝔰!

Help? Help how? The man seems to be the one in need of help more than we do.

ℌ𝔢 𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔨𝔰 𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔫 𝔲𝔰. ℑ𝔣 𝔴𝔢 𝔥𝔢𝔩𝔭 𝔥𝔦𝔪, 𝔪𝔞𝔶𝔟𝔢 𝔥𝔢'𝔩𝔩 𝔥𝔢𝔩𝔭 𝔲𝔰 𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔫.

And if he doesn’t?

𝔏𝔲𝔠𝔶 𝔠𝔞𝔫 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔩 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔥𝔦𝔪.

… yes. Lucy can deal with him.

)*(

Wilson woke with a start.

His body shot up, but quickly regretted it as pain shot through him, forcing him to lay back down on the straw mat. Only to do it again as he realized he was laying on a straw mat.

“Wh-what?” He blinked a couple times, ignoring the pain that was traveling through his body.

“Ah. He awakens.” A small voice caught his attention. Turning his head slowly, Wilson spied a small blond haired girl ( _another child?!_ ) sitting next to a fire pit, breaking bits and pieces off a tree branch and dropping them into the flames. Wilson opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a harsh cough. The girl silently watched him, her face unreadable as he managed to get his breathing under control. “Do not try to speak. It’s meaningless as is living.”

Wilson gave her a questioning look, but her focus was on the fire, ignoring him in favor of burning the branch into pieces.

)*(

Time was hard to tell down here in the caves as Wilson came to find out soon enough.

It wasn’t easy to tell how many days had gone by just by examining the trees or the growing crops in the gardens. Light may come and go down here, but it was so dark it was hard to tell what was day and what was night.

Didn’t help much that his only company wasn’t of the talkative sort.

No matter how much Wilson tried to get her to open up and talk with him, her words were very short and cryptic. At least the most useful information he got out of her was her name. Wendy. And that was all he got.

(Not very chatty like Webber when the young boy got excited about something. Or like Willow when she saw, lit, or stood in a fire.)

Plus, he couldn’t help but feel… _unnerved_ around her for some reason. Didn’t help that her eyes made him feel like she was staring right into his very soul. ( _Creepy._ ) She also tended to disappear on him a lot and pop right back when he least expects it. ( _Double creepy._ )

“Well it’s not every day you get stuck down in a cave with a unique child.” Wilson muttered to himself, unraveling his right leg for its timely checkup. “Still would be nice if she opened up more. Couldn’t hurt to know how she got here.” He looked over his leg, examining the skin and tested its motor function. When he could feel no pain, he slowly stood up, putting pressure down on it and smiled when his leg held his up.

“Good, at least there’s some good news to this mess.” Wilson nodded his head before frowning at his other legs that was in a makeshift cast. “Still need time for this leg to heal though. Don’t know how long this one will—”

“Finally standing Mister Higgsbury?” Wilson let out a sharp yelp, flinching as he looked beside himself to find Wendy staring up at him. The lantern she was holding cast a dark shadow under her face.

“Huh-Wha-Um-Y-Yes. In-indeed I am. Though not very steady as I would like but I should still be able to move about no—”

“Good. Follow.” Wendy headed off, leaving Wilson baffled.

“Wha-H-Hey!” Wilson grabbed his spear, still using it as a crutch, and limped after the small girl. “Where are we going?!”

“Somewhere.”

“Yes, but where?”

“Somewhere.”

“But where _exactly?_ ”

“The place where it is somewhere.”

“And where _is_ this place?”

“Somewhere.”

Wilson frowned deeply, sighing. “Okay. _Why_ are we going somewhere?”

“Because.”

“… Because what?”

“Because.”

“No, I need a reason other than because.”

“Just because.”

“Saying because is not very informative.”

“…”

“… Is there a reason why you won’t tell me where we’re going?”

“… Yes.”

“Okay. And that reason isssss?”

“… Because.”

A groan of annoyance echoed in the darkness.

)*(

_…_

_Pain…_

_Hurting…_

_Everything… hurts…_

_Breathing… hard…_

_Can’t… move…_

_Where’s… pup?_

_Need… pup…_

_Find… pup…_

_Pup… danger…_

_Protect… pup…_

_… what’s… noise?_

)*(

“So… you act like you’ve been here for a while. This world.” Wilson watched as Wendy climbed on top some rocks, holding her arms out for balance. “How… how long have you been here?”

Wendy shrugged, keeping her eyes down while placing a careful foot down with each step she took.

Wilson sighed, seeing he was getting nowhere with this child who seemed to lack any interest to talk with him. Quite rude if you ask him. He was really missing idle chatter, having grown used it with Willow of the years (years?) here in this world.

He missed having small talks with Willow, telling stories to Webber when he couldn’t sleep, or telling Wolfgang how all his studies shown that he couldn’t lift a certain object no matter how mighty he was. He missed the science machine and fiddling with it to make improvements. He missed the Alchemy Engine and doing science with it. He missed sitting around the campfire when night fell and sharing stories with his group of friends.

He missed his home, the real world, the comforts of having a roof over your head and not having rain ruin his hair with no one to worry about and living in content without the fear if you’ll die the next day or not. He missed the solitude his home had with no interruptions of his work with no one breathing down his neck or telling him how improper he was being letting himself live in such disarray home…

He wondered…

Did…

Did _she_ ever miss him?

“Who?”

“Gah!” Wilson’s heart leapt in his chest. “Will you stop doing that?!” He patted his chest as Wendy continued to stare silently up at him.

“Who were you mumbling about?”

“What?”

“You were mumbling about someone. A she.”

Wilson’s cheeks dusted with a small blush. “I was… mumbling? Out loud?”

“Yes. Who is this she?” Wendy tilted her head, waiting for Wilson to speak.

“No one.” Wilson shook his head. “No one important.”

“… Is she someone special to you?”

“No. She… she’s no one.”

Wendy narrowed her eyes at him. “She can’t be no one. If she was simply ‘no one’, then you would have never mentioned her.”

Wilson’s eyes widen before narrowing. “People can say someone is a no one and be fine with it.”

“But you clearly know this she, and she clearly is not a no one.”

“She’s not important.”

“She must be. You keep denying to talk about her.”

“Maybe I don’t want to talk about her. Or maybe I don’t know much about her.”

“Lies. You obviously know something about her.”

“No. I don’t.”

“You do. You specifically said ‘Did she ever miss me?’ when you were mumbling.”

“… W-What does that—”

“It means you know something about her. Enough that her options or thoughts about you are enough to impact on your emotions and attitude.”

Wilson stopped short. His cheek were burning. “Now see here! I—!”

The ground shifted beneath their feet, breaking their balance. A deep rumbling came about, shaking the ground and rocks falling from the cave roof. Wendy nearly fell over, but Wilson’s hands shot out, grabbing her and holding her steady while trying to keep himself from falling over as well. (Keeping his teeth grit so he wouldn’t grunt in pain with pressure being applied to his still injured leg.)

A moment or two passed before the ground was still again. They waited a moment, making sure everything was alright.

“Was that…” Wilson started, helping Wendy to her feet. “An earthquake?”

“… I believe so.” Wendy gaze was on the ground, looking at the lantern she had dropped when she lost her balance. She stare at it for a while before picking it up, holding up the light for them to see in the darkness.

Both Wilson and Wendy’s eyes widen as the light cast upon a large bolder set right before them. They both knew it had not been there before, and they could see multiple boulders and large rocks laid out all around them.

“Bloody science. That must have been some earthquake. Look at all these stones.” Wilson hobbled over to the stone before them (oblivious that he had dropped his spear during the quake) and rapped his knuckles against it. “We were lucky none of these landed on us. Otherwise we would have been buried under with no way out—”

Something clattered behind Wilson, followed with a sharp gasp, and before he could blink a little blond blur shot past him. “Wha-HEY! Wendy!” Wilson called out to her, but the little girl had disappeared into the darkness, leaving no sight of her.

“Bloody science!” Wilson grabbed his spear and the discarded lantern Wendy had left, and followed after her. “WENDY! WENDY COME BACK! DON’T RUN OFF INTO THE DARKNESS!”

He stopped, looking around for any sign of the small girl. “WENDY! WENDY! WHERE ARE YOU?!” He took off in what he hoped was the right direction. “WENDY PLEASE! ANSWER ME!” He rounded a corner. “WHERE ARE YOU?!” A brief flash of something yellow passed his eyes and for a moment he though he saw her, but he looked it was only a banana tree. “WENDY! WENDY!”

He kept going, ignoring the growing pain in his bad leg, looking around for the small girl and hoping she wasn’t dead and turned into a little ghost. “WENDY! WENDY! WEN—!”

“Shh!” Wilson stopped when he entered a small pathway. Relief flooded in him when his eyes saw Wendy kneeling safely on the floor next to a glowing light flower. But then his eyes moved towards something else. Something that laid out before him. Something he hadn’t seen before in this strange land of oddity and death. Something that was trapped beneath a pile of large rocks and boulders. Something that Wendy had her head against, her arms wrapped around its neck, her ear pressed on top the thick brown fur, listening for something.

Wilson’s jaw dropped as Wendy lifted her head, and for once since he met her, cracked a small smile. “He’s breathing. How… unfortunate.”


End file.
